Take care when using third party trademarks as meta-tags or titles on your webpage

The Higher District Court of Frankfurt had to deal in its decision of 31 March 2014 (Case ref.: 6 W 12/14) with the question under which circumstances the use of a third party trademark by a reseller as meta-tag or title of a webpage may constitute a trademark infringement.

Generally everyone who resells goods which were put on the marketplace in the European Union with the trademark owner’s consent is also entitled to use the trademark in advertising. Therefore, the use of a third party trademark as meta-tag or title of its webpage by a reseller would not be generally inadmissible. In the case at issue, however, the reseller offered only very few and at the same time overpriced goods originating from the trademark owner. This according to the court allowed the conclusion that main purpose of the use of the trademark was to divert the potential purchasers to its own offer. The trademark owner had therefore legitimate reasons to oppose the use of the mark in this case, Section 24 Para. 2 German Trademark Act. The trademark owner could therefore successfully prevent the use of its trademark by the reseller as meta-tag and title of its webpage under the given circumstances.