For well over a century, U.S. trademark law has afforded brand owners certain rights, remedies and obligations. As the Department of Commerce has noted, owners of trademarks have both a legal right and an affirmative obligation to protect their trademarks from unauthorized third-party use....

There is an ongoing debate over whether or not a trademark is “property,” and what the appropriate boundaries of such a property right might be. Some scholars assert that rules and justifications developed to handle rights in real property are generally a poor fit for intellectual property...

Keyword search advertising occurs when an advertiser pays a search engine to link a particular keyword to its website. Keywords are often trademarks and some mark owners have objected to the search engines' practice of selling their marks as keywords without permission. Trademark doctrine...

The typical scenario of keywording involves a trilateral structure of legal positions. The mark holder is the party that has trademark rights in the term that is used as a keyword. The search engine is the entity that provides search tools to Internet users, usually for free, helping them to...

In both the EU and the US, trademark owners have sued search engine operators for using their trademarks as triggers in competitive keyword advertising. EU and US courts have taken a different approach to search engine operator liability for such invisible keyword use. The article outlines these...

Keyword banner advertising is a form of targeted online marketing practice whereby a banner ad is displayed on a search engine results page. The banner ad is triggered by the keyword used in the search. Many search engines sell trademarks as keywords as well, allowing competitors to purchase...

The impressive growth of online shopping has had a significant impact on firms’ strategies and customer behavior, bringing to the fore new forms of trademark exploitation that may affect competition. A prominent role is played by keyword advertising services provided by internet search...