The owner of M.Martan has filed a lawsuit in a São Paulo court against brands Emma and First Class for using the former’s name when purchasing keywords for searches on Google. According to Ammo Varejo, owner of M.Martan, when someone typed a brand name into a search engine, the sponsored links came from these two competing companies.
The injunction guaranteed that sponsored search purchases would be prohibited, but that decision was not followed, said attorney Juliana Motter Araujo, who is representing Amo Vallejo in the case.
At M.Martan’s request, both companies received notice from the court in August certifying compliance with the decision. Amo, a member of the Coteminas Group, is currently undergoing judicial recovery proceedings in the state of Minas Gerais, awaiting the final judgment of the case.
Emma’s main products are mattresses, but they also sell pillows, protectors, bedding and beds. First Class operates in the bed and bath sector, selling sheets, towels, and accessories such as pillows and pillowtops (additional layers placed on top of the mattress).
M.Martan’s defense claims that a competitor purchased the same keyword as the brand name and several variations, including the final letter m.
At the First Business and Arbitration Disputes Tribunal, Judge Larissa Gaspert Tunara deemed that M.Martan had not proven that he had effectively acquired the keywords.
“There appears to be widespread confusion, including in jurisprudence, about the understanding that all ‘sponsored’ content based on Google searches is the result of keyword agreements, and that causation is not always true,” he wrote in his ruling.
Ammo successfully appealed and had its brand banned from competitors’ searches. The First Reservation and Commercial Chamber of the São Paulo Court of Justice issued a preliminary decision in mid-June.
The judges considered a statement from TJ-SP’s Chamber of Commerce Law Group, which considers the “use of nominal elements of another’s registered trademark, trade name, or facility title” in advertisements contracted with search providers to be unfair competition.
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