The English court's turn to make a reference to the ECJ in yet another Google keyword trade mark dispute

In yet another trade mark dispute resulting from Google's AdWord service, the UK High Court has decided to refer a "comprehensive" list of questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) before the hearing of the main trial. Interflora claim that Marks & Spencer is liable for infringing its trade mark by purchasing Interflora as a Google AdWord, and benefitting from the sponsored search results it obtained as a result.

Although Google is not a party to this legislation, Interflora has alleged that Marks & Spencer is jointly liable for infringements by Google as well. Significantly there was no visible use of Interflora within the displayed text of the sponsored search result.

Read Wragge & Co's analysis for an in-depth consideration of the issues.