Interflora Inc. v. Marks & Spencer Plc

[2012] E.T.M.R. 1, Case C-323/09 (2011)

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Interflora Inc. v. Marks & Spencer Plc

European Union Court of Justice
[2012] E.T.M.R. 1, Case C-323/09 (2011)

MP

Facts

Interflora Inc. (plaintiff) managed a worldwide flower-delivery service. Its business model centralized the flower-ordering process while distributing fulfillment: Interflora managed online, in-person, and telephone orders and sent each order to the florist located closest to the recipient for fulfillment. Interflora owned the trademark for the word “Interflora” in the UK and the corresponding community trademark in the European Union (EU). It possessed a considerable reputation in both the UK and the EU. Marks & Spencer Plc (M&S) (defendant), an all-purpose UK retailer, also provided a flower-delivery service via its website. To advertise, M&S used Google’s AdWords service, which allowed entities to select keywords that would trigger advertisements for their services on a user’s search-results page. M&S chose the keyword “Interflora,” identical to Interflora’s trademark. Interflora sued to prohibit M&S’s advertising efforts, and the case was eventually referred to the EU Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Per curiam)

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