Is UK trademark law more similar to US or French trademark law?

….. I guess we are about to find out.

Here is an interesting article about an event that took place in 2003 (ages ago!) in France….

“The Lower Court of Nanterre required Google France to pay 70,000 euros (about $81,400) to two companies that owned the rights to certain words. Google France sold the use of these words to advertisers through its AdWords program. AdWords permits individuals and companies to place advertisements on the Google home page that appear when a specific search term is used.

Travel agencies Luteciel and Viaticum sued Google in December 2002, after the search company refused to curb the use of disputed words in the AdWords program.

Luteciel and Viaticum claimed intellectual property rights in “bourse des vols” and “bourse des voyages,” which roughly translate to travel market and airflight market.

The French court concluded that Google France violated the country’s intellectual property code that, translated, “prohibits, in the absence of authorization of its owner, the use of a trademark for products or services identical to those indicated in the recording.” 

Funny how it is always travel companies who resort to the lawyers!

Lire l’article (en Anglais) 

If you are still hungry for more “legal stuff”…. (yeah I should rename this blog) then here is a very good backgrounder. It describes the differences between US and French law on trademark bidding on search engines.

http://www.lctjournal.washington.edu/Vol2/a014Keenan.html

“Recent judicial decisions in the United States and France seem to indicate that the jurisdictions are headed in opposite directions.

French courts appear to be taking a strong pro-trademark-owner stance, while American courts are showing more deference to search engines. This divergence reflects a fundamental difference in how trademarks are perceived under French law and American law: Trademark rights are more akin to property rights in France than in the United States. French trademark law focuses on a trademark owner’s investment of intellectual and financial resources in her trademark.

As a result, French law emphasizes protection of the trademark owner’s reputation and goodwill that become the “protectible features of the trademark” over time. American law and public policy, on the other hand, tend to favor consumer welfare and freedom of competition. Each is accorded great weight when courts consider the rights of trademark owners”

Perhaps Google were in “US mindset” when they changed their stance on trademark PPC bidding in the UK.

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