If you can't beat them, change the law

"Anti-Google" feelings are not only proper to the French government: A member of the European Parliament suggests the Commission already takes action in case the Court of Justice ruled in favor of the search tool in the (currently pending) cases over AdWords!

ORAL QUESTION H-0435/09
for Question Time at the part-session in December 2009
pursuant to Rule 116 of the Rules of Procedure
by Seán Kelly
to the Commission

Subject: Trade Marks Directive (2008/95/EC) and Google AdWords

The recent opinion by Advocate General Poiares Pessoa Maduro for the European Court of Justice on the issue of Google AdWords cases favoured permitting one company to purchase an AdWord which is trademarked by another company, based on Article 5 of the Trade Marks Directive (2008/95/EC[1]).
Trademarks are central to the defence of intellectual property rights. It can take many years for a company to build up the reputation on which a trademark is based. This applies as much to small and medium enterprises as to larger enterprises. The purchasing by one company of another company’s trademark is patently unfair.
Can the Commission therefore state whether it is prepared to put forward amending proposals in order to update the Trade Marks Directive should the ECJ rule in favour of Google in due course?
Tabled: 11.11.2009
en
[1] OJ L 299, 8.11.2008, p. 25.