Google Ruled a Trademark Infringer

Stephan writes "Google lost a trademark-infringement case in France. News.com is reporting that a Paris District Court ruled yesterday against Google in a lawsuit filed by high-end fashion designer Louis Vuitton. The company is suing Google for allowing its competitors to buy targeted ads on the search engine's search results pages that use or are associated with the Vuitton trademark. The court charged Google with trademark counterfeiting, unfair competition and misleading advertising. Google was ordered to pay $257,430 (200,000 euros). Google is facing similar lawsuits in different countries. In the United States, the company recently won a favorable ruling in a similar case brought by GEICO, the car insurance company."

Comments

Sillyness

[cyberfunk2]

Do these sorts of suits strike anyone else as utterly ridiculous ?

I mean has anyone seen any pepsi/coke ads lately ? They feature their competitors unabashedly. I know it's not quite the same thing, but the premise is ridiculous: "No one should hear about the competitor's products when ours are mentioned". I mean sure, that's nice to have it that way and all, but it seems a tad silly, no?

On the charges: Unfair competition ? What exactly IS that ? And how is google at all competing directly w/ Louis Vuitton?

Counterfeits.. Ok, this is just clearly a trumped up charge because L.V. doesnt like competition from other brands, just another thing to throw in the charge-pot. I mean if people are gonna buy high end fashion, they're likely not gonna accept substitutes (the whole thing is silly, but w/e).

Misleading advertising ? I mean sure, they're advertising for the competitor.. but misleading ? What are they saying that's false?

On the other hand, it's France, and its a french company (Louis Vuitton) against an american company (Google)... so it's not like there's any political bias or anything either. Another suit in France w/ "Le Meridien Hotels" went the same way. Hmmmmmmm. Notice that a similar american suit went google's way.

What do I suggest to stop this sort of sillyness ? Anyone who goes after google like this should quite simply have their pages removed from the index. "Got a problem with our system? then you dont need to be in it, goodbye". Now THAT is a strong deterrent. Those whiny bastards would think twice.

Re:This is plain stupid.

[Wavicle]

How the f$ck is this trandemark infringement?

You thought a French court would find in favor of an American company?

What Google should do...

[FrothyBitter]

...block all French ISP's.