• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 6, 2009

A court in France has reportedly ordered Google to pay more than $500,000 for infringing two travel companies' trademarks with the AdWords platform.

The court found that Google infringed the trademarks of Voyageurs du Monde and Terres d'Aventure by displaying ads for rivals when users queried on the travel companies' names, according to Out-Law.com. Google was ordered to pay Voyageurs du Monde approximately $256,000 and Terres d'Aventure around $192,000. Google also was ordered to pay around $78,000 in court costs.

A Google spokesperson said the company disputes the judgment. "Google believes that our advertising services comply with French and European law on online advertising," the spokesperson said.

The ruling marks the latest defeat for Google in a European trademark case. Last year, a French appellate court ruled that Google's AdWords infringed the trademark of Louis Vuitton by allegedly prompting marketers to bid on terms like "Louis Vuitton fakes."

The search company appealed that ruling to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Last month, a German court also asked the European Court of Justice to weigh in the same issue, according to Out-Law.com.

In the U.S., Google has had mixed success in court. Most recently, the company was sued for trademark infringement by American Airlines. That case was resolved with a confidential settlement after a judge in Fort Worth, Texas refused to dismiss it at a preliminary stage.

But Google previously won several lawsuits where companies argued that their trademarks should not be used to trigger ads. In late 2004, Google won a trial in a lawsuit brought by insurance company Geico. In that case, a judge in Alexandria, Va. found that Geico had not proven that consumers were confused when they typed "Geico" into the query box and paid search ads appeared for Geico rivals on the results page. (Google and Geico reached a settlement about another portion of the case.)

Computer repair shop Rescuecom also lost a trademark case against Google. There, a trial judge ruled that arranging for a trademarked term to trigger a search ad is not a "use in commerce" under trademark law. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is currently mulling Rescuecom's appeal.