Ortlieb won a lawsuit in a German Federal Court against Amazon on July 25. The German company wants to prevent the appearance of ads with the Ortlieb brand name on Google, which are linked to offers on the Amazon homepage. The issue is that, when searching a term with Ortlieb in it, such as “Ortlieb bicycle bag,” “Ortlieb luggage bag” or “Ortlieb Outlet” in a Google search, online consumers may be directed to products made by competing brands. Ortlieb claims that this practice infringes its trademark rights and violates competition law, irrespective of the application of an algorithm-based search. The Civil Senate of the Federal Supreme Court has now decided in Ortlieb's favor. A trademark owner may oppose the use of its name in an ad that appears after a Google search if the ad is misleading and consumers are led to third-party products. As already reported in our Outdoor Industry Compass, Ortlieb began to sign selective distribution agreement with pure online retailers in Germany earlier this year and is now planning to do the same in Austria, Switzerland and the U.S.
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