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Europe’s Court of Justice has confirmed that use of a competitor’s name as an Internet advertising keyword does not constitute a violation of European trademark law.

The case involved two companies Primakabin and Portakabin, which both manufacture temporary sheds and buildings.

Primakabin used keywords like “portakabin” and mis-spelled variants “portacabin” in keywords it used with Google AdWords in order to draw users to Primakabin products when they searched for its competitor.

In coming to the conclusion the court that such conduct did not constitute trademark infringement the court said:

“ A trade mark proprietor is not entitled to prohibit an advertiser from advertising – on the basis of a sign identical with, or similar to, that trade mark, which that advertiser chose as a keyword for an internet referencing service without the consent of that proprietor – unless there is a legitimate reason, within the meaning of Article 7(2), which justifies him opposing that advertising, such as use of that sign which gives the impression that the reseller and the trade mark proprietor are economically linked or use which is seriously detrimental to the reputation of the mark.”

Funny I thought that anytime one company uses the trademark of another it’s  “seriously detrimental to the reputation of the mark”

Guess that’s only if a domainer is doing it.

You can read the entire opinion of the court here

Last September the same court reached a similar decision in a similar case involving Adwords but between different parties. 

You can read about that case here