Metatags and banner advertisements - do they infringe trade mark rights?

摘要

Metatags and banner advertisements have been very much in the legal news recently. The point in issue is whether their use amounts to registered trade mark infringement and/or "passing off" or unfair competition. Metatags are keywords which, when entered into a search engine such as Google, locate websites that use the keyword in question. It is possible to purchase keywords from the operators of search engines and thereby ensure that a website using those keywords is included in the search results. Metatags are invisible to the end user however and are written in computer source code. Keywords can also be purchased or "reserved" so that when they are entered into a search engine, they trigger pop-up banner advertisements which, when clicked on, take the user to the website of the purchaser/reserver. There have been a number of recent cases in the UK and elsewhere dealing with the question of whether use of metatags and banner advertisements infringe trade mark rights.