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2 Victoria U. Wellington Working Paper Ser. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/vuwlrwp2 and id is 1 raw text is: 







KEYWORD ADVERTISING, AND OTHER

INVISIBLE USES OF THIRD-PARTY

TRADE MARKS IN ONLINE

ADVERTISING - A NEW

ZEALAND/AU S TRALAS IAN

PERSPECTIVE

Philip J Greene*




From the early days of the Internet, the use of trade marks have been the subject of intense debate
and often litigation. Indeed, much of what constituted Internet Law in the late 1990s was driven
by controversies over the use of trademarks, in domain names, on Web sites (both visibly and
invisibly), and other forms. As we entered the 21 century, the discussion shifted to the advertising
arena, as search engine companies saw ways to profit by selling advertising, using methods tied to
the trade marks of third-parties. For example, search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft,
Ask.com, and others, have sold Internet key words, words that when searched for using their
search engine, might produce a desired search result, or hit. When such key word search terms
happen to be trade marks, the owners of such marks have reacted by filing litigation, in some
jurisdictions, or government action has been brought, in others. This paper discusses those
practices, and how third-party use of trade marks in Internet advertising is conducted in New
Zealand and Australia, and how courts and government agencies in Australasia and elsewhere have
dealt with such practices, or how existing jurisprudence might be applied The papers begins with
an examination of the trade mark, its origins in English common law and how it has evolved, and
how owners can prevent third-party unauthorised use. The paper discusses what constitutes trade
mark use, in various jurisdictions (including the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand).
Included is discussion of New Zealand and Australia's trade mark law, the law of passing off and


*  InternetNZ Senior Research Fellow in Cyberlaw, Victoria University School of Law, Wellington, New
   Zealand, November, 2007.

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