Louis Vuitton

The development of technologies has brought us to the epoch of the virtual realities and electronic commerce. And while the technologies themselves are void of any human features it is human beings who control and drive them which results in that the virtual world is also full of fraud and dishonesty. While participation in electronic commerce transactions is exciting and very convenient you should always remember about those who make money on unscrupulously exploiting popularity of some phenomena.

Google announced it would allow advertisers in Europe to use rival’s trademarks when they bid for online ads in a move to prevent big brand owners from controlling which ads appear during users' searches.

The change takes effect September 14, 2010 and applies to most European nations. However, the practice itself is not new as it has been applied to brands in the United States, Britain and nearly 200 other countries. The change in Europe was adopted after a European Court of Justice ruled that Google did not infringe trademark law by selling keywords to trigger ads.

eBay was found liable for misleading customers by using misspelt versions of luxury brand Louis Vuitton as search engine key words to redirect users to Ebay website links. A Paris tribunal on Thursday ordered eBay to repay 200,000 euros ($275,800) in damages and 30,000 euros in legal costs incurred by Louis Vuitton.

Besides, eBay was also demanded to pay 1,000 euros in penalties every time it used search engine key words that "harmed the reputation of the Louis Vuitton brand."