Intellectual property law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Intellectual property law - Essay Example The case was viewed as critical to the search engine’s business model that had been built around the system. The ECJ also added that the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest court would have finality on other cases, case-by-case. The court also contended that its decision on whether the search engine company was liable over stored client data should be left in the hands of the French courts (Hill, 2012: p19). Google, it said, could not be held liable if at all it possessed a neutral role that was passive, automatic, and technical, pointing to a lack of data control or knowledge (Smith, 2012: p72). Previously, Google used to stop advertisers from buying the brand names of others as keywords, although, this policy was altered in 2004 for the North American market before the extension into Ireland and Britain four years later. An interim legal opinion in September of 2009 delivered by the European Court of Justice contended that Google had not infringed on any trademark law s or rights, via allowing the buying of keywords by advertisers in correspondence to registered trademarks. Several trademark lawyers, such as Fiona McBride of Withers & Rogers, described the European Court of Justice’s ruling with regards to an ad’s origin as perplexing (Stim, 2010: p34). ... Consequently, very rarely will users of the internet be able to ascertain that his or her services or goods’ origin, as well as making it easier for advertisers to navigate the law and utilize trademarks from third parties as key words (Wherry, 2012: p77). This translates to advertisers being able to secure commercial advantages by taking a piggy ride on other trademark’s reputations. This paper seeks a critical evaluation of the development of the trademark infringement law in relation to ad-words, as well as the implications of the European Union Court of Justice’s ruling pertaining to the use of key words in advertising over the internet (Wild, 2011: p22). Development of the Law in Trade Mark Infringement relating to ‘Ad-words’ As the analysis of the Louis Vuitton vs. Google Inc. above has indicated, trademarks are valuable assets to top corporations. In cases where these trademarks are exploited correctly, they endow their proprietors with increa sed benefits, distinctiveness, and fame (Bainbridge, 1999: p45). Therefore, the respective proprietors of these trademark rights, via contemplation of their significance and value, as well as devotion of material efforts towards their evolution in the future, can invest vast sums in attempts to protect them. During the past decade, proprietors of various trademarks have begun to turn their attention to violation of their trademarks that are occurring over the internet. The internet has shown a tremendous rate of growth over the past decade, which has led to new economic models developing, as well as novel methods of advertising (Colston & Galloway, 2010: p45). The internet has made, within the context of a new economic