Shapewear, keyword character string, exploitation of results of others' efforts

1. Marilyn International Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Marilyn International) and Venus International Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Venus International) both sold custom-made shapewear for women and, therefore, competed in the same market. On August 10, 2015, Marilyn International found out that Venus International had adopted the registered trade mark "Marilyn" of Marilyn International in its keyword character strings. When consumers keyed in "Marilyn" for their online search, "Venus Marilyn, make your husband love you even more" and "Help you become a perfect Marilyn" would pop up and they would be directed to the website of Venus International. As a result, more consumers would then have the chance to browse Venus International's website. It was exploitation of the efforts of others to promote its own products or services. The obviously unfair conduct could have an effect on trading order.
2. Findings of the FTC after investigation:
   Venus International commissioned AdGeek marketing Consultancy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as AdGeek Marketing Consultancy) to work out all its keyword character strings posted between July 1 and August 31, 2015. AdGeek Marketing Consultancy adopted Google's keyword suggestion tool and keyword insertion function to produce and post the character strings. However, AdGeek Marketing Consultancy misused the keyword insertion function by ticking all the keywords suggested by Google's keyword suggestion tool. As a consequence, the controversial wording of "Venus Marilyn, make your husband love you even more" and "Help you become a perfect Marilyn" popped up when the above search was conducted. When Venus International found out about the keyword character strings on August 11, 2015, the company immediately demanded AdGeek Marketing Consultancy to make corrections.
3. Grounds for disposition:
   According to Marilyn International, the name "Marilyn" and the company logo had been registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and publicly announced in 2004. Marilyn International also invested a large amount of money to advertise its shapewear. Therefore, "Marilyn" could be regarded the business symbol of Marilyn International which had put in a lot of effort to run business. Venus International used "Marilyn" to produce keyword character strings, display the wording of "Venus Marilyn, make your husband love you even more" and "Help you become a perfect Marilyn" and direct visitors to the company's own website. Consumers entering the word "Marilyn" on Google would end up with the search results that included both Venus International and Marilyn International. Apparently, the practice was intended to take advantage of the efforts that the company's competitor had invested to promote services in the market. Venus International used the name of Marilyn International to lead people to visit its own website. The two companies were the two top contenders in the female shapewear market and each had its market power. The market competition was intense. Hence, by using a competitor's business symbol to produce keyword character strings, Venus International affected trading order in the female shapewear market. It constitutes exploitation of the efforts of others in violation of Article 25 of the Fair Trade Law. Citing the first section of Article 42 of the same law, the FTC imposed an administrative fine of NT$50,000 on Venus International.