international trademark intellectual-property regulations advertisements
How is trademark infringement in online ads regulated internationally?
<p>I am currently studying intellectual property law in Norway and I am looking for some help with an assignment. I am wondering about online infringement of trademarks.</p>

<p>Here is an example:</p>

<p>An online ad for replica "Ray Ban" glasses might infringe on Ray Ban's
trademark(s).</p>

<p>Does anyone here have some input on how this would be regulated internationally?</p>

<p>There is no single world government with legal power to set laws for everyone on the planet, so this is accomplished via cooperative nation-by-nation laws. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Organization" rel="nofollow">World Intellectual Property Organization</a> administers a number of <a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/" rel="nofollow">international treaties</a>, and almost all countries on the planet are members, though when it comes to specific agreements and protocols, coverage can be spottier. One scheme is "<a href="http://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/members/" rel="nofollow">The Madrid Union</a>", which both the US and Norway are members of. If I foolishly decide to start marketing dairy products in the US using a bucket with wings as a logo and call my company "<a href="https://www.tine.no/" rel="nofollow">Tine</a>", some other company might want to sue me for violation of their trademark. The text of the Trademark Law Treaty is <a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/text.jsp?file_id=294357" rel="nofollow">here</a>, and you can see that this is basically about registration, and not remedies. By going through one of these registration-disseminations protocols, they may have registered their trademark in the US, so they could sue me here for infringement.</p>

<p>There isn't anything legally special about ads or being online. If it is prohibited to use a trademark without permission, then it is prohibited to use the trademark online without permission. Permission might be highly restricted (e.g. the Disney trademark), or not (can't think of an example).</p>
