There is a lack of clear rules regulating the use of sponsored links on the internet, where cases of trademark infringement and unfair competition occur, pointed out, on Tuesday, 07, Paulo Parente Marques Mendes, director of ABPI, and lawyer Walter Capanema, participants in the debate on “ Sponsored Links and Internet Ad Activation: Unfair Competition or Consumer’s Right to Information? ”. The event, held within the scope of the workshop “Contemporary Issues of Intellectual Property Law”, promoted by the ABPI and EMERJ (School of Magistracy of the State of Rio de Janeiro), from the 6th to the 10th of this month, had the participation and coordination of the president Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta of ABPI, and the judge of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro (TJ-RJ), Agostinho Teixeira de Almeida Filho.
Although the practice of sponsored links on search sites is lawful, explained Parente, it is necessary to discuss further the limits of this type of advertising. “Conflicts arising from the absence of a specific requirement,” he said. The ABPI director brought jurisprudence on the subject to the Courts (TJ) of Rio and SP. At the TJ-SP, since 2016, the jurisprudence has been consolidating in the sense of recognizing that the use of trademarks, as keywords in links sponsored by unauthorized third parties, with the intention of diverting customers, denounces an act of unfair competition.
In his presentation, Capanema spoke about how Google’s search engine works from a commercial perspective. He pointed out possibilities of abuse of the advertising network on sponsored links, including unfair competition, through evasive ads, false news and other frauds such as excessive keywords, spam, viruses, etc. keys targeting third-party products “is a complex procedure”, which can result in bad faith on the part of the advertiser. “There is a need for better regulation of the use of sponsored links on the internet”, he said.
