Quelques mots sur les contrats de vente de mots (Observations sur la condamnation judiciaire en France de Google pour son système Adwords)

Abstract

A French court has ruled against Google France in an intellectual property dispute, saying the company infringed trademark laws for allowing advertisers to combine their text notices to trademarked search terms. This decision, which is not a temporary injunction, is unique, and it is also the first in the world to find Google liable for its AdWords program. This short analysis recaps the reason how the law applied to the search tool, and highlights that the judicial decision has probably no effect for the defendant: not because it has been ruled in France, but because advertisers who buy AdWords agree to indemnify Google for any liability and cause of action. Therefore, this shows that these conflicts of laws in cyberspace are not those we thought so far…. DOI: 10.2966/scrip.010304.434 © Cédric Manara 2004. This work is licensed through SCRIPT-ed Open Licence (SOL). * Associate Professor, EDHEC Business School (Law Department) and Visiting Scholar, Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law (2004). Cédric Manara is also a head columnist on e-commerce for a prominent francophone law review, Dalloz, and a member of Juriscom.net’s scientific committee, a leading online journal specializing in Law & IT (www.juriscom.net). The usual disclaimer applies. All the links have been checked on August 20, 2004. (2004) 1:3 SCRIPT-ed 435 «Les mots ont un prix, les mots peuvent devenir des marchandises, ici, on atteint le point culminant du capitalisme, le capitalisme sémantique généralisé ». C’est le constat désolé1 de l’artiste Christophe Bruno, qui avait tenté de détourner le système publicitaire Adwords de Google. Le célèbre moteur de recherche propose en effet aux annonceurs d’associer des publicités aux requêtes effectuées par ses usagers. Le message est ciblé en fonction des termes à l’aide desquels les demandes sont formulées. Et à chaque fois qu’un internaute clique sur le petit placard publicitaire qui apparaît, le moteur de recherche gagne quelques centimes d’euros, en exécution du contrat que l’annonceur a passé avec lui.