What is keyword search advertising?
Keyword search advertising is a form of advertising whereby a search engine sells advertising placement to an advertiser based on specific words or phrases that a user of the search engine enters as search terms. The advertiser who enters into this kind of arrangement with a search engine benefits by having its ad or sponsored link displayed whenever any of the search terms it has chosen are entered by a user—even if those search terms include the trademarks of the advertiser’s competitors. What is the dispute about? At core, the dispute is about whether, in a keyword search advertising arrangement, the search engine or the advertiser or both are infringing the rights of competitors whose trademarks are on the list of keywords the advertiser has chosen to trigger its ads. Those who oppose this practice say that it infringes trademark rights because consumers who enter certain search terms and are then subjected to a search results display that also includes ads and sponsored links plac
