French Firm Files UDRP Against Google’s AdWords.com

Firm that was subject to Google UDRP fights back.

French firm Francotel, LLC has filed a UDRP complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain name Adwords.com, Reglike has learned. The case is not yet posted on WIPO’s web site.

Francotel has a French trademark for “Adwords”. It filed to cancel Google’s European Union trademark for “Adwords” earlier this year but lost the case.

Google filed a UDRP against Francotel in May over the domain name ad-words.mobi in a case that’s still pending.

Now Francotel is fighting back by going following Adwords.com itself. In the complaint, Francotel argues that there’s no reason for Google to use the Adwords.com domain name “other than to mislead consumers into inferring an association with Francotel’s adwords Mark and services.”

The firm also claims that Google registered the Adwords.com domain name to infringe “thousands of trademark holder” around the world and to use the domain name for “abusive and anticompetitive practices”.