This now means that Google no longer monitors or restricts keyword advertising anywhere, since it had only been doing so in the above jurisdictions. This change of policy followed promptly from Google’s recent victory in the Australian High Court, which found that Google is not responsible for the misleading use of its AdWords service by advertisers. In particular, it was held that Google merely published or displayed the adverts it did not create them. Google’s adwords facility is a conduit for the placement of adverts, but that did not mean that Google has authorised the advert or is complicit in any misleading or deceptive effect created by its placement. The High Court held that internet users would consider misrepresentations in advertisements provided in search results to be misrepresentations made by advertisers, not by Google. In this way the High Court has taken a technology neutral approach and considered Google to be like newspaper publishers or radio broadcasters that publish other parties adverts. Consequently, where a trade mark owner considers that the use of their trade mark as an AdWord has created a misrepresentation or deceptive effect, they need to pursue that grievance with the advertiser rather than Google. However, Google will continue to monitor and potentially remove adverts that use trade marks within their text if Google has been requested to do so by the owners of trade marks.
