Google Claims Victory In French Supreme Court Keyword Trademark Case

Google wrote that they were victorious in a ruling today by the French Supreme Court over trademark infringement charges brought to them by three companies. But not everyone agrees that Google was indeed the winner here.

Google wrote:

Today, the French Supreme Court was unequivocal in their rulings and anyone who reads them will be left in no doubt that there was no trade mark infringement in these cases. In addition, the Court went beyond the European Court of Justice by excluding any act of unfair competition or misleading advertising by Google. The Court also ruled in Google’s favour in a related fourth case brought by a French company called Gifam.

But the Wall Street Journal explained “both sides welcomed the Supreme Court’s referral of the case back to the appeals court.” Meaning, both sides of the case are happy that the case will be automatically referred to a French Court of Appeal.

Google said they are happy with this decision because “the appeal court needs to apply today’s judgement” of what was mentioned above. But Louis Vuitton said they are happy because it “will enable the Paris Court of Appeals to rule on Google’s civil liability when using trademarks without the trademark owner’s authorization.”

Who is the winner here?

For more history on this case, see our post from March 2010.