Comments on: Google loses trademark dispute in France

French court orders search giant to stop using the trademarks of a European resort chain to trigger keyword ads.

150 euros a day??

Google will just pay that ridiculous fine and leave things as they are...

[dmehus]

Not Necessarily

I doubt there they make 150 euros day from one term, "Le Meridien". It's a hotel chain I'd not even heard of. Besides, it's the principle. If they lose the appeal, then they'll stop the practice of allowing companies or people to bid for placement based on trademarked terms.

It's not a ridiculous fine, either. It's one area where I believe Google needs to be reigned in.

Cheers,
Doug

How does this ruling make any sense

Shouldn't Google be allowed to refer their customers to whomever the please, since it is their search engine?

So if Google is not supposed to display search results of competing customers, how is Google supposed to know who the "real" customer is. For example, Competitor wants to register with Google the phrase "the best there is" which Trademark holder owns. How would Google know a) Trademark holder really does own the phrase, b) Is it okay to display secondary, tertiary...results?

So is it illegal now to display AutoClub links when someone types in Microsoft's trademark phrase "Where do you want to go today?" OR is it only illegal if it is a competitor?? Which brings up my next hairy question...how do you determine if somebody is a competitor???

This doesn't seem to pass the smell test, because it relies too much on criteria that is not clearly defined or ill-advised at best.

I hope this type of ruling gets overturned and in the long run rejected.