See Reed Smith’s report of Mr Justice Arnold’s detailed judgement in the Interflora v Marks and Spencer case on trade mark infringement as it relates to keyword advertising.

It is clear from the judgment that nothing is inherently wrong with bidding on and purchasing keywords that are trade marks of third-party competitors.

However, if there is any room for confusion as to the origin of goods or services, advertisers will need to exercise some caution. This is so even though Google labels paid for search terms as “Ads”.