PARIS � AXA, the world's third-largest insurer, is taking Google to court in May in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google's business model: advertising.
Google is already embroiled in litigation on both sides of the Atlantic over claims that its pay-for-placement service, Adwords, allows clients to hijack their competitors' trademarks.
The growing mass of litigation over trademarks in advertising could weigh on Google's expected multibillion-dollar stock market launch, experts say.
A preliminary hearing on the insurer's allegations of "brand counterfeiting" is set for May 10 in Paris, a court official said.
Both companies have confirmed litigation is pending but declined to say how much AXA was seeking in damages. Under French court procedures, details will not be made public until later hearings.
A source close to the Paris-based insurer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the lawsuit was filed after Google sold AXA's registered trademarks as advertising search terms.
Internet users who typed "AXA" or "Direct Assurance" into the search engine got ads for rival insurers alongside ordinary search results, the source said.
A Google search in Paris Thursday of "AXA" reaped mostly AXA sites and one U.K. financial planning site.
In the United States, retailers American Blind and Wallpaper Factory and Pets Warehouse are pursuing separate lawsuits alleging that Google used their trademarks to trigger ads from rivals.
The lawsuits have arisen despite Google's stated policy that it will generally remove ads triggered by registered trademarks when notified by their legitimate owners.
Google is about to relax that policy. Earlier this month, it announced plans to allow the sale of any U.S. or Canadian trademark as a search term. Trademarks in the text of ads would remain restricted.
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