Post Tagged with: "trademark"

Controversial Provisions in Olympic Marks Protection Law Expires

The Toronto Sun notes that the controversial provisions in the Olympic marks legislation – enacted to guard against ambush marketing in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics – expired at the end of 2010.  I wrote about the legislation here.

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January 4, 2011 1 comment News

B.C. Court Clicks With Internet Advertising Keyword Case

Google has grown to become the world’s leading Internet company based largely on accurate search results, yet its financial success owes much to tiny advertisements that are posted as sponsored links alongside the "organic" search results.  The determination of which sponsored links appear on a Google search result page comes in part from a keyword advertising system in which marketers bid on specific words. Whenever a user clicks on the sponsored link, the marketer pays Google the bid amount.  Each click may only cost a few pennies, but with millions of clicks every day, the keyword advertising business is a multi-billion dollar business for Google and has been emulated by competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft.

Keyword advertising has been a huge commercial success fueling many ad-supported websites, but it has not been without legal controversy.  The practice has generated a steady stream of cases addressing whether the use of a competitor's keyword raise potential trademark or misleading advertising issues.  For example, is Coca-Cola permitted to bid on the Pepsi keyword so that when an Internet user searches for Pepsi they are presented with a sponsored link for Coke?

The issue has been litigated in other countries, but my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that late last month a B.C. court provided the Canadian perspective for the first time. 

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June 10, 2010 8 comments Columns

B.C. Court Clicks in Internet Advertising Keyword Case

Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 7, 2010 as Google's Keywords Belong to Top Bidders Google has grown to become the world’s leading Internet company based largely on accurate search results, yet its financial success owes much to tiny advertisements that are posted as sponsored links alongside the "organic" […]

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June 7, 2010 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Trosow on Wal-Mart Using IP To Shut Down Union Site

Sam Trosow reports on Wal-Mart's efforts to shut down a union website by using intellectual property claims based primarily in trademark.

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August 8, 2009 3 comments News

Montreal Board of Trade Demands Removal of iPhone App

The Montreal Gazette reports that Stationnement de Montréal, a subsidiary of the Montreal Board of Trade, has demanded the removal of an iPhone application that pinpoints where Bixi bikes, public-use bikes, are available in the city.  The Board cites trademark rights in the name Bixi.

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June 2, 2009 5 comments News