Both sides claim victory in Interflora legal battle

Interflora and Marks & Spencer both claimed victory yesterday in their legal battle over whether M&S can use Interflora trademarks as keywords to trigger adverts on the search engine Google for the retailer's own flower delivery service.

The UK arm of Interflora said it was "delighted" by the European Union Court of Justice's ruling that a trademark is "adversely affected" where the advert causes confusion among consumers that these services originate from the proprietor. But the court also ruled that online ads using such keywords that provide an alternative to the goods or services of the trademarks' owner, were "within the ambit of fair competition". The High Court will make a final ruling next year.