Google has challenged an Indian court ruling that it infringed on a company’s trademark rights by allowing rivals to use its name as an advertising keyword, arguing the decision will hurt consumers.
Background
The case involves Indian bathroom fittings maker Hindware, which accused its rivals of purchasing keywords related to its brand on the Google ads platform. The Delhi High Court ruled against Google, ordering it to pay damages of $31,600 and other litigation costs.
Google said the decision makes India the “sole outlier” among global jurisdictions “with serious consequences for the digital advertising industry, online consumer choice, and competitive markets.” The company argued that a keyword is merely used as an internal and backend trigger to display an ad and is simply “making advertising space available”.
Implications
If upheld, the original ruling will have wide-ranging ramifications for how the online ads market operates. Indian lawyers and tech experts say it could change the economics of online ads for millions of businesses that were suffering when their competitors bid on their name and Google took a fee.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
