A French court recently ruled that Google was infringing upon the trademark of hotel chain Le Meredien by allowing competitors to bid on Meredien's name and have their own names appear prominently in
search results. The ruling, handed down last month, ordered Google to stop linking competitors' sites to Meredien's trademarks in their sponsored links. Google lost a similar ruling in a French court
against fashion designer Loius Vuitton. In a U.S. federal courts, however, Google won a similar case brought against them by auto insurance provider Geico. Google representatives did not return calls
for comment.
--Shankar Gupta
