Amazon’s trademark infringement: What do retailers need to know?
11 February 2014
After the High Court ruled that Amazon breached the copyright of Lush, Lewis Silkin's client and the ethical cosmetics firm, Retail Week have published a new Q&A about the implications of the ruling.
The 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 view the Q&A in full on the Retail Week website here. Please note a subscription is required to view this article.
Preceding this article, Retail Week yesterday published an article covering the judgment, which you can view here. Please note a subscription is also required to view this article.