This one’s going to come up time and time again – and I believe has already been an issue in Europe – companies buying pay per click ads on search engines, using keywords relating to competitors.

“Stickybeek said the Trading Post had used a sponsored link to the Stickybeek name on the Google website, ensuring that a link to the Trading Post’s autotrader website appeared next to the results of a search for the term Stickybeek.”

Presumably Trading Post bought keywords like ‘Stickbeek’.

Google lost a court action in France earlier this year. Google accepted ads from a travel company, who bought keywords relating to rival travel companies.

“Under French law, the practice of responding to an Internet search for one company’s products with information about those of another manufacturer is considered akin to counterfeiting. “

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/17/HNgooglefranceadwords_1.html