Trademarks as Keywords: Much Ado About Something?

Franklyn, David J.; Hyman, David A.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2110364

“…They do not only enter trademarks into search engines in order to identify the trademark owner's website where they can buy products or services. Rather, they may use a trademark in their search term if they are looking for general information about the product; for competitors or compatible components; for alternative distribution channels or third‐party after‐sale services; for ways to finance the purchase of the product; they may use the trademark as a generic shorthand for certain kinds of products; or they may not be fully certain whether and what kind of product to buy (Goldman ; Dogan & Lemley ; Franklyn & Hyman ; Blake et al. ; Gilson et al.…”

Section: Legal Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this environment of active trademark use by both firms and consumers, more direct evidence of consumer behavior is of particular interest. Although consumer surveys have been used to measure consumer behavior in the context of keyword advertising (Franklyn & Hyman ), and courts have recently begun to explore advanced digital data sources, we propose a novel, more direct, and richer way to analyze consumer behavior. We use micro‐level click‐stream data on web browsing to directly observe consumer browsing behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trademarks, Triggers, and Online Search

Bechtold

¹

,

Tucker

²

2014

J Empirical Legal Studies

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Internet search engines display advertisements along with search results, providing them with a major source of revenue. The display of ads is triggered by the use of keywords, which are found in the searches performed by search engine users. The fact that advertisers can buy a keyword that contains a trademark they do not own has caused controversy worldwide. To explore the actual effects of trademark and keyword advertising policies, we exploit a natural experiment in Europe. Following a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Google relaxed its AdWords policy in continental Europe in September 2010. After the policy change, Google allowed advertisers to select a third party's trademark as a keyword to trigger the display of ads, with only a limited complaint procedure for trademark owners. We use click-stream data from European Internet users to explore the effect this policy change had on browsing behavior. Based on a data set of 5.38 million website visits before and after the policy change, we find little average change. However, we present evidence that this lack of average effect stems from an aggregation of two opposing effects. While navigational searches are less likely to lead to the trademark owner's website, non-navigational searches are more likely to lead to the trademark owner's website after the policy change. The effect of changing keyword advertising policies varies with the purpose of the consumers using the trademark, and it is more pronounced for lesser-known trademarks. The article points to tradeoffs trademark policy is facing beyond consumer confusion. More generally, the article proposes a novel way of analyzing the effect of different allocations of property rights in intellectual property law.

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“…While consumer surveys have been used to measure consumer behavior in the context of keyword advertising (Franklyn and Hyman 2013), 2 and courts have recently begun to explore advanced digital data sources, 3 we propose a novel, more direct and richer way to analyze consumer behavior. We use microlevel click-stream data on web browsing to directly observe consumer browsing behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trademarks, Triggers, and Online Search

Bechtold

¹

,

Tucker

²

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Internet search engines display advertisements along with search results, providing them with a major source of revenue. The display of ads is triggered by the use of keywords, which are found in the searches performed by search engine users. The fact that advertisers can buy a keyword that contains a trademark they do not own has caused controversy worldwide. To explore the actual effects of trademark and keyword advertising policies, we exploit a natural experiment in Europe. Following a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Google relaxed its AdWords policy in continental Europe in September 2010. After the policy change, Google allowed advertisers to select a third party's trademark as a keyword to trigger the display of ads, with only a limited complaint procedure for trademark owners. We use click-stream data from European Internet users to explore the effect this policy change had on browsing behavior. Based on a dataset of 5.38 million website visits before and after the policy change, we find little average change. However, we present evidence that this lack of average effect stems from an aggregation of two opposing effects. While navigational searches are less likely to lead to the trademark owner's website, non-navigational searches are more likely to lead to the trademark owner's website after the policy change. The effect of changing keyword advertising policies varies with the purpose of the consumers using the trademark, and it is more pronounced for lesser-known trademarks. The article points to tradeoffs trademark policy is facing beyond consumer confusion. More generally, the article proposes a novel way how to analyze the effect of different allocations of property rights in intellectual property law. 1Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2266945 I IntroductionSince the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s, electronic communication networks have led to significant changes in value chains. Traditionally strong intermediaries -such as record companies, publishers, newspapers, or movie companies -have been struggling to define their future roles and find profitable business models in a radically changed environment of content consumption. At the same time, new intermediaries -such as search engines, auction sites, or social networks -have emerged. In some cases, they threaten to displace traditional intermediaries. In other cases, they complement them or create entirely new business models.In recent years, the discussion on intellectual property rules for intermediaries has increasingly focused on Internet search engines. In particular, a vigorous debate focuses on whether keyword-based advertising violates trademark law. In Google's version of the system -called Google AdWords -advertisers can buy advertising links in the 'sponsored links' section of a Google search results page. Thereby, advertisers purchase the possibility of having their ad displayed with the search results for a particular keyword that is relevant to their busines...

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Law and Economics of Copyright and Trademarks on the Internet

Bechtold¹

2013

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

0

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Trademarks as Keywords: Much Ado About Something?

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Trademarks, Triggers, and Online Search

Trademarks, Triggers, and Online Search

Trademarks, Triggers, and Online Search

Law and Economics of Copyright and Trademarks on the Internet

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