Techno File: Internet search engine in the clear

GOOGLE'S AdWords system does not break trademark law but companies can still stop trademarks being used in the system in some circumstances, the European Union's top court has said.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has said that Google's AdWords system does not violate the trademark rights of a brand owner when its trademarks are used by another to trigger adverts.

But it said the advertiser does infringe trademark rights in some cases and trademark owners can demand Google stop the use of its trademarks, and that Google will be liable for the infringement if it does not act quickly to stop that use.

The ruling did say owners had the right to stop the use of their trademarks in AdWords when the adverts displayed suggested that they were linked to the trademark owner or caused confusion about who was behind them.

Freer telecoms

BT WILL have to open up the telegraph poles and under-street ducts that make up much of its network structure to competitors under plans published by telecoms regulator Ofcom.

The former state monopoly will have to provide detailed information on the network to competitors by the end of the year under Ofcom's plans, which are designed to increase competition in the telecoms market.

Ofcom said that there is unused network capacity that BT should make available to other companies. Ofcom said BT will have to provide competing operators with information about the network infrastructure within three months of Ofcom's concluding statement on the matter, which is expected in the autumn.

A survey found 85 per cent of poles could accommodate more wires and 63 per cent could house double the number of wires currently on them.

'Enforce privacy'

DATA protection laws should change to force people creating new technologies to design privacy features into them, according to the EU's data protection advisor.

European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx told the European Commission that the law should change, and be applied to three areas of technology development as a priority. These are social media, RFID and targeted advertising.

The EDPS has adopted an opinion and submitted it to the commission, which is developing a "digital agenda" to guide its government of emerging and existing technologies.

"To significantly minimise the risks and to secure users' willingness to rely on ICTs (information and communication technologies], it is crucial to integrate, at practical level, data protection and privacy from the very inception of new ICTs," said Hustinx. "This need for a 'privacy by design' approach should be reflected in the EU data protection legal framework at different levels of laws and policy making."

"Privacy by design needs to be explicitly included as a general binding principle into the existing data protection legal framework," said an EDPS statement.

Hustinx said that the change was vital if users were going to learn to trust emerging information services.

EC query statute

THE European Commission has asked businesses to tell it why they have not used a company structure established five years ago to help cross-border trade.

A report issued with the consultation has found, though, that the average cost of using the European Company Statute (SE) is 706,086. The Ernst & Young-produced study said that Allianz paid 85 million to change its status, while BASF's change cost it 4.5m.

The SE gives companies that operate across EU borders the chance to re-organise their business under one structure.

"This enables them to work within a stable legal framework, reduce the internal costs of operating in several countries and hence be more competitive in the internal market," said a commission statement. "The SE has proved to be very popular in some member states but it has not taken off in others."

The commission is now conducting a consultation on the company structure in order to find out why it has not been more widely used by business.

"I believe that the SE can substantially reduce costs for businesses operating across borders," said EU Commissioner for internal markets and services Michel Barnier. "However, it's clear that it has had much more success in some countries than others. I want to find out why and determine whether we need to make improvements to the existing rules."