NEWS
The São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP) upheld the judgment of a first instance judge who ordered a company to pay R$ 15,000 in damages for diverting customers of its competitor through the purchase of Google’s sponsored links.
The first level Judge had noted in his decision that the expressions used by the plaintiff to identify the products and services it offers were not of common use, which would render them unique and distinctive in its market segment. As such, the defendant, while associating the plaintiff’s expressions to its own website address would be illegally benefitting from the plaintiff’s reputation and fame to attract attention to its products and services, which would configure the practice of unfair competition.
Deciding the case, the first level Judge had established that the decision should only affect the defendant, given that Google does not have any control over the ads and keywords used in its search engine.
For further information, please contact:
Rafael Pessoa
