Want to Buy Your Competitor's Trademark on Google Ads?

I sell Pepsi. You sell Coke. We each own our trademarks, and work hard to enforce them. I want to sell more Pepsi, so I buy "Coke" in Google Ads - sure it will cost me money but whenever someone searches "Coke," there will be my ad on the right side of the search results - perhaps offering a special deal to new customers.

Fair? Legal? I don't know about fair, but clearly the option to bid for and pay for specific words on Google Ads is available to everyone. Only Google wins.

Is it legal? That question is not yet answered - definitely anyway. Google, not surprisingly, says yes, and offers the explanation - the legal explanation that is - that using trademark terms in metatags (another use but quite similar) and in Google Ads is not "trademark use" - that is, that the alleged infringer - me in my example - is not using the competitor's trademark in a way that identifies the source or sponsor of specific goods and thereby creates the potential for consumer confusion in the marketplace. This view has been adopted by a number of federal courts that have been presented with the issue.

In the First Circuit, however, which includes Maine, the U.S. Court of Appeals has held that it is unlawful trademark infringement for a website operator to use another's trademark on its website without permission even though the trademark is never displayed or viewed by the public. This case involved metatags but the result should have bearing on the use of another's trademark in Google Ads.

Protecting Intellectual Property By Recycling

I recently heard a piece on the news about major corporations in Egypt and elsewhere that were increasingly engaged with recycling efforts, even to the extent of paying a bounty for the return of their containers and packaging. Does it matter that the result - less trash - is motivated not by a desire to help the environment by reducing the plastics and other materials used in such products but by their desire to limit the potential for counterfeit goods being placed into commerce in these countries?

Time Off

Our family had a fantastic Christmas season, and I hope everyone else did as well. It makes you know what to appreciate. First Vicki and I, and our three children, had Christmas breakfast at the beach cafe on Anna Maria Island - off the west coast of Florida - with my parents and then Christmas dinner with my cousin from Montreal and her family.

Then the five of us headed to the Keys and some relaxing time - playing tennis, going diving, sailing, hanging at the pool. It was great!