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Amazon loses High Court trademark case with cosmetics retailer Lush in search marketing row

11 February 2014

Following Lewis Silkin and Lush's successful trade mark win over Amazon, The Drum have covered the High Court ruling which determined that the online retailer breached the copyright of cosmetics company Lush by attempting to divert customers to similar products through online search results.

This case clarifies the extent to which third parties may use trade marks to generate sponsored advertisements within search engine results or within websites to direct web-traffic to products which do not originate from the trade mark owner. It will deter online retailers from promoting alternatives to products that they do not sell and it will restrict how retailers use search engines on their own sites as well as third party search engines for marketing purposes.

Simon Chapman, partner at Lewis Silkin LLP, added that yesterday's judgment “provides much needed clarity with regards to exactly how far third parties can go in their use of trade marks to generate sponsored advertisements or direct web-traffic for commercial gain unrelated to the trademark owner".

You can read Simon's comments in full on The Drum's website here.

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