Foreign trademarks
as
Search term.
Foreign trademarks
as
Search term.
from
Keyword advertising: When does the use of a third-party trademark as a search term in e-commerce constitute trademark infringement? The OLG Düsseldorf had to decide on this.
Keyword Advertising
Keyword advertising is a form of online advertising in which companies advertise their products using specific search terms (keywords) in order to make them easy for users to find when searching online. Protected trademarks are often used as search terms.
The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf dealt with the question of whether keyword advertising infringes a protected trademark. The decision centered on the question of whether a retailer may use a trademark as a keyword on the Amazon platform in order to place its own compatible products – in this case vacuum cleaner bags – in the search results. The trademark owner objected to the use of her trademark as a keyword. The reason: after entering her trademark as a search term on Amazon, over 10,000 hits appeared – but not a single original product from the trademark owner, only compatible third-party products from the retailer with the note “suitable for […]” and “not an original”.
No impairment of the origin function
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court dismissed the action in a ruling dated August 7, 2025 (20 U 73/24). The decisive factor was that the trader’s offers did not impair the origin function of the plaintiff’s mark.
The term “suitable for” is familiar to consumers in the sense that it refers to products that are compatible with the original electrical appliance but do not come from the original manufacturer.
The court assumed that the use of the trademark as a keyword constituted trademark use. However, in line with ECJ case law , the court clarified that even if the retailer had used the trademark as a keyword, there was no trademark infringement. The normally informed and reasonably attentive consumer would clearly recognize from the design of the offers that the vacuum cleaner bags did not come from the manufacturer or a company affiliated with it. The clear indications “suitable for […]” in the headline and “not an original […]” in the product description as well as the lack of labeling on the illustrated bags were decisive. In addition, the average consumer knows that when searching for consumables such as vacuum cleaner bags, compatible “me-too” products are also regularly displayed – even for specific brand searches.
Conclusion
Keyword advertising with third-party trademarks is not illegal per se. The decisive factor is the design of the advertisement. Dealers who sell compatible spare parts may use trademarks as keywords as long as they clearly indicate that their products are not original goods and are only compatible products.
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