Google Decides To Annoy Trademark Holders (Again!)

Google, like many big companies, runs the risk of falling flat on its face one of these days. There is only so much that they can hope to get away with before things take a turn for the “worst” (ie. against them)

Google has always had an “interesting” relationship with IP holders and has been embroiled in several legal battles in Europe (and elsewhere) over the last few years.

This time round, unfortunately, they are relying on an ECJ decision to remove a lot of their restrictions on Adwords bidding. From September 14th it’ll be “open season” on trademark bidding.

Google, of course, refer to it as an “improvement” for their users – hardly surprising as they’ll be able to make more money from it.

Expect to see more court cases surrounding this, as the area is complicated (to put it mildly) and Google’s decision has some rather interesting ramifications