Trademarks in „Adwords” context
Date: 22/09/2011In its judgement of September 22nd 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that the owner of a trademark is entitled to prohibit his competitor from creating advertisements around a key word relating to the trademark if the competitor used the word without the trademark owner’s permission within the references on the Internet (in the given case “AdWords” service), and also if the above competitor takes unfair advantage of the distinctive character or repute of that trademark (free-riding). However, he is not entitled to prohibit the competitor from using such advertisement in case they provide an alternative to the goods or services of the trademark’s owner and does not intervene into the functions of the trademark. For further information please contact Stanislav Ďurica (stanislav.durica@rc-cms.sk), senior associate at Ružička Csekes.