Google and LVMH are back in court this week over the use of trademarked terms in when used in adwords. Google’s current stance in the UK is that trademarked terms can be utilised as a search term to generate the display of competitors’ adverts, but cannot be used within the text of the advert itself. The rub as far as LVMH is concerned is not just legitimate competitors in the luxury bag business (Louis Vuitton is the subject of the case) but also counterfeit operators who are able to tarket end users with great effect.

The real question is whether trade marks should be able to be used by any third party except for instances of comparative advertising. See the Guardian’s coverage of the story here.