Googles varumärkespolicy
En föränddring av varumärkets värde?
During September 2010, Google decided to change their trade mark policy to allow keywords which is equal to an already own trademark to be offered to all who intend to link the word to their ad. They offered a service for this called Adwords. The update followed since The Court Of Justice (CoJ) stated that Google does not commit trade mark infringement by doing this. The question to answer is whether the proprietors of trademarks can do something to stop them from being used by competitors as keywords in Adwords. CoJ has stated that the advertisers are infringing the exclusive right of a trademark if the used keyword is identical to the trademark, the commercial focuses on products that is identical to the products which are registered on the trademark and if the commercial makes it difficult or impossible to an average internet user to decide whether the products originate from the proprietor, a company which has a financial connection to the proprietor or a third party. If an advertiser limits the ad to contain commercial which focuses on their specific business and products it is most likely not possible for the proprietor to claim trade mark infringement. The opportunities to stop the advertising is found in the Swedish Marketing Act . This section of law prohibit so-called abuse of reputes and misleading marketing. In the case Blocket vs Metro it is tested whether Metro had conducted Abuse of Blockets repute by using the trademarked term "blocket". The Swedish Market Court (MD) stated without justification that some abuse of repute did not exist. The trade mark has, because of the policy change, reduced its value since the opportunities to protect a trade mark are still around but now the process is less efficient and more expensive. This however can be changed as soon as the possibility of ?misleading advertising? is tested by the MD.