A French court - seldom an auspicious beginning to a story involving Google - ruled against Google in a December trademark decision published early this week. The U.S. coverage notes only that Google was accused of trademark infringement because competitors of the Meridian hotels were able to employ Meridian as a targeting term. But that issue was largely settled early on by Google's agreement to nix the use of the trademarked terms. The French coverage notes an important difference about the recent decision: that the judge was particularly concerned that Google's own keyword suggestion engine was putting the Meridian trademark up as one of the optimal targeting terms. The wrote that the settlement suggestion was not good enough; that Google must somehow also change its suggestion engine. See more…

The decision digs an even deeper whole for Google in French trademark practice. Google has already lost simpler cases in the past in France.

In this most recent decision, the judge wrote, "Google France a fait des efforts méritoires pour satisfaire les exigences de la société des Hôtels Méridien. il subsiste des problèmes et de sérieux doutes sur la stabilité des remèdes mis en œuvre pour respecter les marques protégées." He also said Google had "manifestement un rôle actif dans les choix faits par l’annonceur."

["There remains problems and serious doubts about the stability of the remedies implemented to respect the protected marks." He also said Google had "an active role in the choices made by the advertiser."]