Google fined by French court
20 October 2003
A French civil court has fined the search giant Google for allowing advertisers to link text Internet advertisements to trademarked search terms.
Google has been ordered to pay 75,000 euros (£52,000) in damages, and has been given 30 days to stop the practice entirely.
The case follows complaints from an Internet travel agent who requested that Google stop allowing competitors to include 'bourse des vols', a name it claimed to have legal rights to, as a term that would generate advertisements and links to competitors' sites.
Google refused to do so, arguing that its French arm was not responsible, the term 'bourse des vols' was not protected by a valid trademark and that the issue was technological and so impossible to resolve.
Fabrice Dariot, who owns the trademark to 'bourse des vols' and sued Google, commented on the potential ramifications of the ruling:
'It was as though the Internet and the real world were two different worlds, but this ruling shows that there is only one world,' he said, according to Euronet. 'It shows that the Internet will have to respect intellectual property rights.'
As a result of the ruling, searches under 'bourse de vols' will only generate search results linking to Mr Dariot's site. Google is looking to appeal the decision.
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