The ruling upheld a district court's decision that Axiom Worldwide infringed on American Medical Corp.'s trademark when it used the terms
"Accu-Spina" and "IDD Therapy" in its meta tags--particularly in its description tag. A Google search that showed the terms highlighted prominently in the company's description field was offered as
evidence.
Axiom doesn't deny that they used the terms, but as copyright and IP legal expert Eric Goldman notes, the ruling doesn't take into account the fact that Google (or the other engines) sometimes automatically assembles search result descriptions from third-party resources like DMOZ. The issue also raises the question of whether meta data counts for much more in terms of rankings than the engines have been admitting to. Still, the best way to avoid any kind of confusion (or legal ramifications) is to not use trademarked terms in your meta tags.