Could pricey handbags dent Googles money machine?
(Fortune) — Tomorrow morning the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is expected to decide whether Google, and, by inference, other search engines, can continue to auction off other companies’ trademarks for use as search “keywords” in connection with their sponsored advertising programs. An adverse ruling would force a permanent change to the engine that accounts for 97% of Google’s revenues, which were more than $23 billion in 2009. And while this decision probably won’t cut into that, the massive interest in this case shows just how central Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) has become to world economies: Although the European Court of Justice usually hears cases in five-judge panels, the entire 15-judge court has convened to decide this one because of its enormous significance. U.S. lawyers and judges, too, are watching closely to see if there are lessons to be mined here.
