There's a multi-pronged assault on the internet going on now. It comes from over-zealous legislators, the US executive branch and individual judges. There's an effort on multiple fronts to grant over-broad powers to copyright owners to instigate domain seizures, cut-off funds and de-index "rogue" websites if found guilty of "infringement," where that concept is very expansively defined with potentially disastrous consequences for free speech and legitimate internet operations. As you've no doubt read there are two pieces of anti-piracy legislation before the US Congress: SOPA and the P [...]

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The European Union's Court of Justice has ruled in the long-running Interflora case against Marks & Spencer, which involves bidding on trademarked terms, and the decision is no clear victory for either party. Instead, it OKs trademark bidding so long as the resulting ad offers an alternative to the mark holder's service and doesn't cause dilution, tarnishment or adversely affect the functions of the trademark. The case involved a situation in which retailer Marks & Spencer bid on the florist network's trademarked keywords and phrases, including variants, in Google AdWords in the [...]

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ACCC loses misleading ads case against Google via the Sydney Morning Herald reports the ACCC, Australian Competition and Consumers Commission, has lost their has in an Australian Federal court against Google. The watchdog group sued Google over deceptive ads back in 2007. The federal judge, Justice John Nicholas dismissed the case saying the Google was not liable for advertisers using competitors' names and trademarks in their ads. You can read the full court document over here. A Google spokeswoman said, "Our guiding principle has always been that advertising should benefit both [...]

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Google has won a $1.6 million settlement against five defendants that it sued in December 2009 over the use of Google's name in what the company called "a widespread Internet advertising scam." Today's decision involves five of the 50 defendants that Google originally sued: Bloosky, Just Think Media, Crush, Hyper Interactive, Search 4 Profit, and Viable. Google had previously settled with another defendant, Pacific WebWorks, last June. The companies created a variety of online marketing schemes that used Google's name, such as "Google Cash," "Google Profits" and "Google Money Kit." In i [...]

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[caption id="attachment_65488" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Image courtesy Shutterstock.com"][/caption] The European Advocate General is recommending that the Court of Justice of the European Union rule against retailer Marks & Spencer for bidding on the trademarked terms of Interflora, the flower delivery network company. If the Court of Justice acts on the findings, it could effectively spell the end of bidding on competitors' trademarks in the European Union. Unlike other cases, like Luis Vuitton v Google, this case pitted the trademark owner, Interflora, directly again [...]

Related Topics: Legal: Trademarks