Selling Keywords for Ads an Infringement

link to the opinion
Oh boy! This has got to be trouble!

Volume 72 Number 1779
Friday, July 28, 2006 Page 348
ISSN 1522-4325
News

Trademarks/Infringement
Search Engine's Sale of Trademark Terms
As Keywords Ruled Commercial Use of Mark


Selling paid-search listings triggered to appear whenever a user queries the plaintiff's trademark is a "use in commerce" of the mark that may be infringing, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled July 17 (800-JR Cigar Inc. v. GoTo.com Inc., D.N.J., No. 00-3179, 7/17/06).
The court adopted the reasoning of Government Employees Insurance Co. v. Google Inc., 330 F. Supp. 2d 700, 73 USPQ2d 1212 (E.D. Va. 2004) (69 PTCJ 186, 12/24/04 ), for the proposition that keyword-based advertising amounts to a use in commerce of a trademark where the mark serves as an invisible trigger to display a competitor's ad. . . .

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