Google Loses Another French Trademark Suit
from the the-French-really-don't-like-our-search-engines dept
Do you get the feeling the French really don't like American search engine companies? They've called Yahoo a war criminal, warned that Google is threatening French culture, and now have misunderstood the purpose of trademark law for the third time as it relates to Google's ad network. As with times one and two, they interpret trademark law not as a way to avoid customer confusion over counterfeit products (trademark's intended purpose) but as giving the trademark owner complete and total control over the trademark. Once again, though, it raises questions about jurisdiction. Should Google have to comply with different interpretations of trademark law in every country from which people access their site?
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If I was Google...
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If either Google or Yahooo refuses to litegate and loose the cases by default in French court, what recourse does the court have? It might be able to freeze French-held assets, which would affect employees in France. But what else?
Can a court in a foreign country issue takedown orders on servers outside that country? They had cooperation with a copyright infringement case between the European equivalent of the RIAA and the BitTorrent servers in Scandanavia.
Would W allow both Google and Yahoo to go dark over a court order from a French court?
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Easy Solution...
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It is anything BUT unethical… in fact… it about the most ethical possible response. It is letting the punishment fit the crime “you don’t like the way we link to you? Fine. How about we no link to you at all? See if you like the result of THAT, you slender cigarette smoking buffoon!”
In a way… it is exactly what the French are asking for… it does not open the search engines up to litigation, it is doing what they ASK for.
I say block ‘um… and see how long it takes them to change their tune… it seems that they are already so worried that Google will not do enough for them that they are trying to provide a sissy “me too” service for scanning and searching French texts… So how will they like it when they run Google all the way out of the country? How long will it take them to change their stupid “sue first, ask questions later” tune when they see there are CONSEQUENCES for not playing like adults? But then I said that the last two times they did something this stupid.
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