A French court has ruled against Internet search powerhouse Google in an intellectual property rights case that could have far reaching technological and financial implications for Web search firms, who process tens of millions of queries a day.
The civil court in Nanterre, near Paris, fined privately held Google €75,000 for allowing advertisers to link text Internet advertisements to trademarked search terms and gave the company 30 days to stop the practice, common at Internet search services.
The ruling, handed down earlier this week, is believed to be the first in which the owner of a trademarked term successfully sued an Internet search service over the practice of allowing advertisers to use protected terms in text ads.
If it was upheld on appeal and validated in other countries the decision could force the search services to pre-screen search terms for trademarks before letting advertisers use them.
It was not the first time the French legal system has taken aim at the Internet. In November 2000, a French judge ordered Internet giant Yahoo to bar people in France from accessing sites selling Nazi memorabilia in a case that sparked a trans-Atlantic legal spat.
Timothy Koogle, the company's one-time chief executive, was acquitted earlier this year of charges that he condoned war crimes by selling the items on Yahoo sites.
In the trademark case, the owner of the name "Bourse des vols" (Market for Flights), an Internet travel agent, wanted Google to stop allowing competitors to include "Bourse des vols" as a term that would generate an advertisement and link to their own site that Internet searchers could click on.
Google had refused, arguing its French arm was not responsible, that the term bourse des vols was not protected by a valid trademark and that the issue was technological and could not be resolved.
But the court found for the plaintiff on all three issues, said Fabrice Dariot, who owns the trademark to "Bourse des Vols" and sued Google. Dariot said that while the fine was small, the decision could be important.
"It was as though the Internet and the real world were two different worlds, but this ruling shows that there is only one world," he said in an interview. "It shows that the Internet will have to respect intellectual property rights."
The result of the decision would be that any time the term "Bourse des Vols" was typed in, only ads for that specific site could be posted with the search results, Dariot said.
Mountain View, California-based Google said it would appeal the decision and declined further comment.
But because the decision was made on an enforceable basis, Google will have to make the changes while the appeal is underway or face fines of up to 1,500 euros for each infraction, Dariot said.