Analysis Of Liability Of Search Engine Service Providers In PPC

The emergence of search engine makes it easy to get needed information from mass datas.Because of commercial interests,when people search for a trademark or enterprise name,search engine service providers will often put the site of bidders who have nothing to do with trademark owner in the search results,which happens continuously.Anti-unfair competition law could be used when things about enterprise name,however it is a question which law could be used when things about trademark.How to regulate the behavior of the search engine service providers,to balance the interests between providers and other rightholders such astrademark owners is concern in the theoretical circle and judicial circle.The author will be in accordance with the order of the trot,by such means as empirical research,theoretical research,comparativeresearch to analysis this question.The author thinks that,first had PPC offered by search engine service providers,then there is the bidders' bidding behavior,finally produce the infringement.According to the logical order of tort,it is necessary for us to analysis the bidders' tort liabilityfirst,then the search engine service providers constitute direct infringement or indirect infringement,elements of infringement,duty of care and excusatio and so on will be discussed.Therefore,the main body of this article includes five parts:The first part,introduction.Mainly includes three sections,the background and significance of the topic,literature review,research methods and research ideas.The second part,the legal thinking about search engine service providers' responsibility in PPC.In this part the author mainly uses the method of empirical analysis by taking the famous case as an example,for the judicial status at home and abroad,and put forward the following problems: PPC is technology neutral or advertising? Bidders' behavior constitute trademark infringement or unfair competition? What duty of care does the search engine service provider have? How can the search engine service providers be exempted from responsibility?The third part,the analysis of the nature of the bidding and the analysis of the bidders' tort liability.After analyzing of the bidding works and determining the nature of bidding,this paper combs the bidders' behavior in theory,thinks that the bidders' selection,adding or modifying keywords is a kind of internal behavior,the behavior of the bidders does not constitute "trademark use",and therefore does not constitute trademark infringement;The essence of bidders' behavior is to use the brand reputation of others to "free rider",to win business opportunities for himself and impair other obligee's business opportunities,thus belongs to acts of unfair competition.The fourth part,the responsibility of the search engine service providers.Based on the role of platform provider,the author believes that the search engine service providers have consistency in infringement of rights with bidders' behavior.Also the author believes that the service provider does not constitute direct infringement,may constitute indirect infringement,and whether it constitutes unfair competition depends on the subjective status of search engine service providers,which means whether the search engine service providers have subjective fault.And according to the principle of “objectivesubjective fault",the author analyzesthe search engine service providers' duty of care.Through the above analysis,the author concluded that the search engine service providers constitute acts of unfair competition needs: the bidders' objectively acts of unfair competition,search engine service providers objectively helped to bidders,search engine service providers had subjective fault.The fifth part,the search engine service providers' excusatio.In this section,the general provisions of the search engine service providers are discussed,including the "safe haven" rule and the "red flag" rule.After that,the author puts forward the concept of exemption for service providers,including the establishment of self censorship system to filter proactively and explicit marking.