The attention of CyberPanda has been caught by the recent lawsuit filed by Interflora against Marks & Spencer and Flowers Direct Online. Interflora has filed the lawsuit against the two defendants on the ground on trademark infringement. The two defendants have purchased certain keywords from Google AdWords including 'interflora' which means that each time a user searches for the term 'interflora', it is directed to the sponsored links to the website of Marks and Spencer and Flowers Direct.
The lawsuit is reminiscent of the recent case of Wilson v. Yahoo! UK Ltd & Anor [2008] EWHC 361 (Ch) which was dimissed by the High Court earlier this year on the grounds that pruchase of the keywords 'Mr Spicy' by Yahoo! did not infringe the rights of the owner of the trademark 'Mr Spicy.' This case was covered in detail by CyberPanda in an earlier publication.
It will be interesting to see whether the Courts will adopt a similar line taken by the High Court in Wilson v. Yahoo or whether this present case will be distinguished from Wilson. The present case has the potential of being a landmark hearing if it is distinguished from Wilson on either a factual or doctrinal ground.
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