In Argos Ltd v Argos Systems, the Court decided that Delaware company Argos Systems' use of ARGOS in its domain name in conjunction with the display of advertisements under the Google AdSense programme did not infringe Argos' EUTMs for ARGOS. The complaint had been on the basis that the use was directed at UK users because adverts displayed in Google AdSense were of interest to UK consumers (some of the adverts were for Argos) and allowed Argos Systems to generate advertising revenue. Some 89% of traffic to the Defendant's argos.com website was from the UK, and 85% of UK visitors left the website after 0 seconds, with almost none clicking past the landing page. The case is on appeal to the Court of Appeal and will be heard in July 2018.
The Court decided that, as Argos had also signed up to the Google AdSense program, it had under its terms consented to Argos Systems' use of the sign in its domain name, together with the advertisements. On the question of targeting, the Court concluded that UK users would not regard the adverts as directed at them because they appeared on a page which they would not regard as directed to them.
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