M&S Sued Over PPC Brand Bidding

The IT, Legal & eCommerce site Out-Law have reported that Interflora is taking legal action against Marks & Spencer for bidding on the keyword 'Interflora' using Google AdWords.

In May 2008 Google allowed PPC customers to bid on somebody else’s brand name.  Previously this kind of bidding was strictly forbidden. 

Interflora's marketing director, Michael Barringer, says that company's brand is its most valuable asset.

"The Interflora brand is extremely valuable and we will not tolerate competitors taking advantage of it and infringing our rights," he said.

"Throughout its history, Interflora has been forced to use legal means to prevent infringement of its valuable trade marks."

"This action represents only the beginning of a broader strategy to defend the Interflora mark against infringers," said Barringer.

Interestingly M&S and Flowers Direct have ceased their sponsorship of the 'Interflora' keywords at the time of writing.

Since the change in the AdWords rules home james have noticed an increased level of competition for brand keywords, however the conversion rate is very low and unlikely to yield significant return on investment.

It will be interesting to see how this case develops as the decision will effect both media agencies and clients.

Excerpt from original article:

The world's largest flower delivery firm has sued Marks and Spencer at the High Court in London for sponsoring the word 'Interflora' as a search engine keyword. The case could be an important test of how UK trade mark laws apply to keyword advertising.

Michigan-based Interflora and its UK trading arm are seeking an unspecified sum of damages and a court injunction to stop M&S bidding on its brand name. Interflora says that the British retailer has taken unfair advantage of Interflora's brand, in breach of trade mark law.

The lawsuit names Flowers Direct Online as a second defendant. The company, based in Morecambe, England, runs a flower delivery service from flowersdirect.co.uk.

In the lawsuit filed yesterday, M&S and Flowers Direct are accused of bidding for the words 'Interflora' and misspellings such as 'Intaflora' and 'Inter-flora' in Google's AdWords programme. When users searched for these terms, adverts for M&S and Flowers Direct appeared as 'sponsored links'.

Google used to work with brand owners to stop their trade marks being used by others as keywords. Controversially, it changed its policy on 5th May 2008. Now almost any word is available for sponsorship, though Google's policies still control the text of adverts that the keywords trigger.

Read the original article in full