Google is in the IP news again. The Advocate General of the European Court, Luís Miguel Poiares Pessoa Maduro has issued an opinion in the Google Adwords Saga. In his Opinion delivered today, the Advocate General suggests that Google has not committed a trade mark infringement by allowing advertisers to select, in AdWords, keywords corresponding to trade marks.
It is not clear, however, if the European court will take this position, although we note that this is, broadly speaking, the position taken by the courts in Israel. See Israel Judge Allows Unregistered Trademarks to be Used as Google Search Terms. Meanwhile, Google is being sued again, this time in India, on the same issue. See Google Sued by Indian Portal for Trademark Infringement.
The other Google story, is, of course, the controversial proposed settlement regarding making (out-of-print? orphan? all?) books available via Google. Here, the search engine has met opposition in both the US and in Europe, see House Judiciary considers Google Books deal and Groups call for EU scrutiny of Google book deal.
Personally, I think copyright law concerning printed material, software, music files and films needs urgent review. The law and technology are clearly out of sync since copyright law reflects 19th and 19th century attitudes to property and is totally inappropriate for the Internet Age. Nevertheless, the United States’ approach as characterized by the Digital Millenium Act and the bullying tactics of the RIAA does not seem the way to go. No answers. Just questions.
