Google V’s American Airlines: American Airlines are in the wrong over trademarks

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November 1st, 2007 by Nick

American Airlines are taking Google to court at the moment over issues with who is allowed and not allowed to use their own registered trademarks. 'American Airlines' is being bid on by numerous advertisers, not only American Airlines themselves, and whilst this is allowed, is this ethical? There are two sides to the story, many people have written articles on it, however I endorsed Google’s stance for the reasoning below.

Google is a search engine that freely allows information to be found (except China, which is a different topic completely!), not only that but relevant information. By allowing advertisers to appear for American Airlines, even though they aren’t actually that company, it gives the end user more choice. Not only this, but it give the user more relevant choice.

Google has its own trademark registration process. If you are a registered trademark owner, you can protect yourself on Google by applying for a Google trademark.

Why in this case haven’t American Airlines done this? The option is there for them to protect themselves but they haven’t taken it up.

Our view of trademarks is the following:
You can register a normal trademark separate to registering your trademark with Google. Other advertisers are allowed to use this trademark as a keyword as long as your ads are not displaying the trademarked term in the title, ad text or display URL. This way the advertiser is not passing themselves off as the trademark owner and is merely adding to the choice available to the searcher.
Google Registered Trademarks are uploaded into the Google database and any advertiser who tries to bid on this registered trademark is not allowed, unless pre-authorisation has been given by the trademark owner.
Bidding on competitor terms, be it trademarked or not, is an effective method for maximising appearance and cheaper sales volumes. As long as the adverts can not be misconstrued as passing yourself off as the trademark owner I can’t see where there is an infringement of trademark law.

Trademarks on Google is a grey area, however this case should make it clearer for everyone once and for all.

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