| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 財法所 === 97 === The development of Word Wide Web brings us more convenience, but it also causes some disadvantages like the new trademark infringement. The Internet provides people more information and knowledge, but we can’t find out what we need without the right direct. That’s why the search engine is made for helping people to find what they need by search the keyword. The keyword is necessary to find out right information from huge resource of Internet, but it also results in the illegal use of keyword (or trademark) to attract user. First, put others’ trademark in MetaTags. Second, internet advertisement. The internet advertisement includes keyword advertisement and pop-up advertisement. Keyword advertisement is that the third party purchases others’ trademarks from search engine providers, when consumer searches trademark that the third party’s advertisement will appear. Pop-up advertisement is advertising agency uses spy software to record consumer’s habit, web page’s keyword to deliver advertisement.
As to U.S. judicial decisions, the court in the Brookfield case found that to use others trademark in the Meta Tags was trademark infringement on the basis of initial interest confusion. In the Playboy case where the search engine provider sold others’ trademark to promote advertisement, the court also found it as trademark infringement. But in the WhenU case, the court found that WhenU’s behavior didn’t conform with the meaning of use in the Lanham Act. It wasn’t trademark infringement.
Under our trademark law, the issues as to whether the keyword use in the internet conform with the meaning of trademark use, and, whether consumer’s likelihood of confusion established at the point of sale, should be solved. The internet trademark infringement shall be prohibited. The application of Article sixth should be extended to the above activities. In the case of initial interest confusion, there are different view points about it, but it is absolutely that the users will spend a lot of time to search the product they need.
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