Amazon
Lush causes a stink at
The cosmetics
company Lush has
recently won its High
Court battle against
Amazon for breach of its
trademarks.
A search for “Lush” on Amazon’s website
directs customers to similar, non-Lushbranded products. Lush, a natural
cosmetics company that takes a strong
ethical stance on issues such as the
environment and animal testing made a
claim in the High Court against Amazon
for breach of its trademark. Lush does
not allow Amazon to sell its products and
so it claimed that the specific reference
to its name “Lush” as a Google AdWord
was also an infringement.
The High Court found in Lush’s favour,
although it stated that Amazon can still
use “Lush” as a paid-for search term to
produce ads for similar products, but
that the ads must not contain the word
“Lush”. Further, Amazon cannot imply
that it sells Lush products when it does
not. Amazon is likely to appeal against
the High Court’s decision, but this case
will have an effect on how online retailers
use search terms to promote alterative
products on their sites.
The High Court held that a normal
consumer would be confused into
thinking that products listed on Amazon
in a search for ‘Lush’ were genuine
Lush products. This amounts to an
infringement of Lush’s trademarks.
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Many companies use keywords,
AdWords and search terms as part
of their advertising. It is generally
accepted that the use of keywords
can help promote competition when a
search engine suggests alternatives to
a specific business or product. However
every retailer must be careful that they
do not do so in a way that means that
their advertising confuses the general
consumer into thinking that their
business or products are commercially
linked. These actions can amount
to an infringement of a company’s
trademark or passing ٙ