Google asked to probe diversion of web traffic
The Hindu
Lack of parity in its policy for India
The Delhi High Court has questioned tech giant Google over lack of parity in its policy for India, against the European Union countries, on investigating cases of usage of trademark as a keyword on its search engine by third party entities, resulting in diversion of traffic from the website of the trademark owner to webpage of the third party entities.
“In a way the [third party] advertiser through oblique motives is cashing upon the goodwill of the trademark owner for his own benefit and through which process Google is earning revenue and as such is equally liable for the omissions and commissions of the advertiser,” Justice V. Kameswar Rao said.
The court’s observation came while adjudicating a case filed by DRS Logistics (P) Ltd, owners of Agarwal Packers and Movers, seeking direction to Google to restrain third party entities from using its registered trademarks as their keyword or as a ‘meta tag’.