Google Vs Brands
Wednesday was a landmark day in the ongoing dispute between Louis Vuitton and Google. The dispute is in relation to Google allowing other brands to bid on trademark terms. The European Court of Justice announced on Wednesday that in their opinion Google were not liable for any loss of sales or detriment to brand if a brand appears on another brands term. This is not a ruling as such but a big hint for what the ruling may be at the beginning of next year.
There are a number of other similar cases at the moment with M&S / Interflora being one of the most high profile.
So what is the issue? The issue that brands have is that they feel that Google should protect the search space for direct searches on their brand and not allow other brands to bid on these terms.
Online and offline this is a hugely contestable issue. Should consumers not have the right to make choices between brands? Should a brand have the right to be the only listing on an exact phrase search of their brand? You wouldn’t walk into Tesco and find Sainsbury’s with a kiosk in the car park which is essentially what this is.
Whatever the ruling is in the Google Vs Luis Vuitton case this will set a presedence for the search market and brands will need to make a decision on what their strategy will be . So far most brands have declined to bid on competitor terms and in some industries there are gentlemans agreements in place but will be interesting to see if the results of this case change the way the brands behave.