Using of Trademarks in Keyword Advertising in Web Search Engines

Abstract

Use of Trademarks in keyword advertising has been one of the most debatable issues in trademark law for several years. This entirely new way of using Trademarks over the Internet has provoked a discussion concerning the core concepts of Trademark law. Harmonized EU trademark law proved to be ambiguous on whether it amounted to trademark infringement or not. This ambivalence was also exhibited by the case law of EU Member States. European keyword advertisers simply could not tell which use of a competitor‘s trademark was lawful. In recent years CJEU has continuously expanded the scope and reach of trademark protection in the EU .It is notable that Inconsistencies in the court’s system of infringement criteria clearly come to the fore and this approach has been criticized by analysts who believe that the Court should have adopt a more traditional approach to the analysis of trademark infringement, which was suggested by its Advocate General, in order to arrive at the same conclusion. The premise on which the Court rested its ruling, it is believed, missed salient parts of the evidence, circumvented its preexisting jurisprudence, and most of all, threatened to open the floodgates of abusive trademark use in the future. With reference to above , this thesis will address issue of keyword advertising under EU legislations and will evaluate ECJ case law together with national members case law.