"A US court has ordered a company to use 'negative keywords' to avoid being associated with another firm's trade mark. The innovative order was one of a series of measures ordered by the judge.
Orion Bancorp took Orion Residential Finance (ORF) to court in Florida over ORF's use of the word 'Orion' in relation to financial services and products, arguing that it had used the term since 2002 and had held a trade mark for it since then.
ORF offered some similar services to Orion, mostly related to housing finance. It was ordered by the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida from to refrain "from any and all use of the term Orion, Orion Residential Finance, or any other confusingly similar term".
The judge in the case went further, though, restraining ORF from "purchasing or using any form of advertising including keywords or 'adwords' in internet advertising containing any mark incorporating Plaintiff's Mark, or any confusingly similar mark, and shall, when purchasing internet advertising using keywords, adwords or the like, require the activation of the term 'Orion' as negative keywords or negative adwords in any internet advertising purchased or used"."
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