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A leading technology lawyer is warning that a significant number of UK corporate websites could be breaching third party trademark rights in the wake of the rankings row between Google and BMW.
James Mullock, a partner at Osborne Clarke, says that companies should audit their websites regularly to ensure that they are not harbouring meta tags or relying on “adwords” bought from a search engine that potentially infringe other company’s trademarks.
In a bid to drive up their search engine rankings, companies often use competitors’ names in meta tags – hidden website coding – to drive traffic to their own site. Additionally, companies may have bought adwords – search terms that entitle the purchaser to an appearance in a sponsored section next to search results – from search engines. If the meta tags or adwords are trademarks belonging to competitors it could amount to third party trademark infringement.
Mr Mullock explains: “Website creation and maintenance is usually managed by technical or marketing staff who are often not aware of trademark rules. Over the years this can result in a surprising number of 'offences', but many companies are unaware that they are breaching any rules.
“Companies, and particularly their in-house legal teams, should take steps to ensure they are not at risk of infringement by auditing their website. They should also ensure that marketing and web-development employees are aware of trademark rules.”
Although UK case law has yet to rule on adwords, the recent Geico vs Google case in the US resulted in an out of court settlement from Google in a case which involved the sale of a trademark protected word as an adword to a competitor of Geico. In the UK, a recent meta tag case resulted in a defendant paying around £70,000 in damages and costs.
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