Google Adwords and Trademark controversy aren’t anything new – and while there have been several cases in US, India will probably start seeing some of these lawsuits as Google adwords’ base goes beyond the regular advertisers.
Consim Info, which owns the trademark for Bharatmatrimony, www.tamilmatrimony.com, www.telegumatrimony, www.bharatrimony.com, www.bengalimatrimony.com, www.muslimmatrimony.com has sued Google India for allowing ads on these trademarked keywords.
Google Adwords Trademark Controversy - [ConsimInfo
Essentially, if you search for Bharatmatrimony (and other trademarked keywords), you will see ads from competing companies.
While Google does competitive ad filtering, there are several permutations and combinations that enables advertisers to play with the system.
Apart from Google India, Consim Info has also asked People Interactive Pvt Ltd, Jeevansathi Internet Services Pvt Ltd and Times Business Solutions Ltd, to surrender all compact discs, master copies, advertising materials, pamphlets, brochures, etc, which bear Consim’s trademarks and/or any other variants to the company. (source)
While the compensation demanded by Consim Info is only Rs. 10.05 lakh, this case might force Google India to change it’s trademark policy.
What’s your opinion?
Recommended Read: Should startups worry about trademarks issues?
What if Shaadi.com and other have bid for the keyword ‘Matrimony’? Their ads will be delivered for any key phrase which has ‘matrimony’ in it. I am not sure if Google will be responsible for this. ‘Bharat’ anyway may not be a copy-writable term.
As per the new google adwords policy one can bid on trade-mark keywords, but competition can’t use exact trade-marked term in ad-text
This is ridiculous! Yahoo search does the same thing but consim wont dare sue them, thanx to the funding they received by Yahoo in the recent years! check up what I found on yahoo search http://search.yahoo.com/search?rd=r1&p=shaadi... (the first ad on the right hand side column) Its a bharatmatrimony ad using ‘shaadi as a keyword! going by their case, they should sue themselves for this, isnt it? does consim take us for being an oblivious audience?!
I am not sure ‘shaadi’ keyword has been trademarked or not.
It is ridiculous as the related advt will appear for a keyword else how one is going to get the requisite info as Google is a search engine provider and not a trade mark provider.
Regards
Indian-Share-Tips.com
well, all through the controversy; one could be confident in saying that the indian courts (madras high court) in the rediff’s case has held that the domain name the trademark of a company for the cyberlaws qualifies to be registered as a trademark. if registered, google should not publish any ads on the websites who have produced their trademark registration certificates with google. it could be the appropriate solution. however, the court may order google to review its policies.
shail shakya
dr. ram manohar lohiya national law university, lucknow
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