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Search Engine Advertising Trademark Claims

In <i>Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.</i>, the Ninth Circuit: 1) expressly held that the use of a trademark as a search engine keyword for the purpose of triggering advertisements is a "use in commerce" of that trademark under the Lanham Act; but 2) vacated a preliminary injunction, finding that the district court's analysis of consumer confusion in the Internet context was too narrow.

21 minute read April 28, 2011 at 10:06 AM
By
Howard S. Hogan and Michael B. Smith
Search Engine Advertising Trademark Claims

Most search engines offer advertisers the ability to purchase “keywords” ' that is, to pay the search engine to display a company's advertisement on the search results page when a user searches for one of those “keywords.”

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