After my recent entry about Geico suing competitors for bidding on their trademark as keywords, Hendry Lee of Marketingloop.com took issue with my analogy of a customer going to BestBuy and "searching" for Sony TVs. His issue was that this is an apples to oranges comparison because of the offline vs online world, and that BestBuy's sales people have an obligation to sell as best they can for the company.

While I agree that this is offline, I think the main issue here and in the case of trademark violations in general is if it is causing customer confusion and or dilution of the trademark.

While, I too am not a lawyer, I find it hard to believe that if someone does a search for the keyword "Geico" and sees and ad for Screentrade Car Insurance. It's clearly a competitor.

I am not sure how the courts will fall on this issue, but my gut tells me that bidding on a keyword should be considered fair use, so long as the ad doesn't cause confusion as to who the ad is for.

It would appear, at least in the US, that Google agrees, as this is their current policy.