fRAnCE
It Is stILL UnCLEAR WHEtHER tHE UsE of
A tRADEMARK As An ADVERtIsInG tooL In
tHE KEYWoRD sYstEM Is An InfRInGEMEnt
not use the directive to avoid being found liable for the off er of infringing Th e court considered that due to the number of adverts, it was diffi cult for
products made on ebay.fr, as this site is hosted by eBay Inc. eBay alone to avoid every infringement and off ered mediation to the parties.
Th is was refused by l’Oréal, and the case is currently pending.
However, in a later decision, the fi rst level of jurisdiction of Paris held that
it did not have jurisdiction over ebay.com, which is aimed at US customers Courts in other countries have adopted diff erent views on this issue.
and not French Internet users, who are automatically referred to ebay.fr.
Contributory infringement
Infringement
Th e Paris Court of First Instance held on February 4, 2009 that an advertiser
On May 13, 2009, a decision was rendered in a case brought by cosmetics
was liable for trademark infringement for purchasing the plaintiff ’s
company l’Oréal against several subsidiaries of eBay France, eBay
trademark as a keyword from Google. Th e same court decided, on May 28,
International, eBay Europe and eBay Inc.
2009, that Google’s search results do not distinguish products and services
L’Oréal sued because the eBay sites were off ering infringing products bearing
and do not associate searches with a specifi c company. In fact, a search only
its trademarks.
ever results in listings for other sites; therefore, the court found that it is
not a trademark use. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether the use of a
It was decided that eBay Inc., France and Europe are all parts of the
trademark as an advertising tool in the keyword system is an infringement.
management of the ebay.fr site, since eBay Inc. is the hosting provider.
Th erefore, their demand not to be maintained in the case was rejected. Th e
Several questions have been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)
court examined whether the eBay companies were able to claim attenuated
by the French and Dutch Supreme Courts. Th e Advocate General handed
liability under the e-Commerce Directive, and granted it for its warehousing down his opinion in the three related French cases (Case C-236/08 to
of adverts but refused to do so for the rest of the company’s activities. C-238/08).
www.worldipreview.com World Intellectual Property Review Digest 2009 75
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173