The primary purpose of a trademark is to facilitate the communication of information between consumers and producers about their products and services to those who wish or need to buy them. The consumer needs to be able to depend on the message the mark conveys to ensure they are purchasing what will fulfil their requirements. In the modern market place, the choice appears endless, and indeed the principles of free trade espoused by the European treaties has heightened the opportunities for cross-national traders to sell their goods, and increased the options available to consumers. When this occurs, so does the availability of information which a purchaser may find the need to seek through to ascertain what he or she wants in an complex and often confusing exercise in differentiation. It is therefore in the interests of producers and customers that those who manufacture goods or provide services develop a mark which identifies their wares and helps provide feedback measured by success; consequently an exchange of information. Consumers are able to make their preferences known via choice, or otherwise, of the mark. Modern business methods and the vast array of marketing opportunities are not only placing the role and function of the trademark at the forefront of consumer protection, but also developing the concept of the mark as an asset of considerable value in itself. This increases its vulnerability to competitive interference and the proposition that it should receive enhanced protection in law. Somewhat perversely, it has resulted in a body of legislation and jurisprudence which lacks cogency and coherence. The purpose of this thesis, accordingly, is to examine the causes thereof by evaluating the current European trademarks protection system to ascertain the contribution they actually make to promotion of free competition and the movement of goods or services upon which that substantial market is predicated. It will examine the impact of the development of protection granted to the trademark with particular reference to the use of online keywords advertising service and focus on the effect of relatively new theories of what functions qualify to be shielded from harm from competitive others. This has expanded beyond the conventional boundaries of source ‘origin’ protection, espoused to primarily protect consumers from confusion in their choice making process. Advertising and investment functions as separate principle are recognised by the Court of Justice of the European Union, but do not appear to qualify for safeguarding in the context of the competitive free market. In fact, it will be shown that giving excessive shelter from harm to all functions which may affect the value of the trademark will limit, even jeopardise, third party competitor and consumer issues. It will inhibit the use of the e-commerce online keywords advertising service which assists third parties to promote alternative competing goods or services and so reduce consumer choice by restriction of online information. It is suggested that proper, clear defences must be guaranteed under the law so third parties may gauge their actions to avoid infringement of trademark owner rights whilst promoting their own products, and accordingly strike the necessary balance between the different competing interests of trademark owners, third parties competitors, and consumers.

This study analyzes the relationship between the information search of internet users and the keywords advertising effects. According to the result of literature review, this study takes ¡§information search on the internet¡¨, four perceptual antecedents of keywords advertising including ¡§informativeness¡¨, ¡§irritation¡¨, ¡§entertainment¡¨ and ¡§credibility¡¨, ¡§advertising value¡¨ and ¡§advertising attitudes¡¨ as our dimensions to analyze the keywords advertising effects. This study adopts questionnaire survey method to collect sample information and the research targets are users who searched information on the internet and understood keywords advertising. This study finds that the higher degree of search of internet users, the greater the informativeness of keywords advertising they perceive, and the keyword advertising is more valuable thus, however, the search degree has no direct effect on keywords advertising. Moreover, informativeness, irritation, entertainment and credibility of keywords advertising all have effects upon the value of keywords advertising; irritation, entertainment and credibility of keywords advertising all have effects upon the attitudes toward keywords advertising. Finally, this study discovers that the value of keywords advertising has effect on the internet users¡¦ attitudes toward keywords advertising.

隨著消費者對網路使用習慣與依賴度提升，網路廣告目前在消費者端的發展日趨成熟，尤其是關鍵字廣告；因其更能精準的鎖定目標顧客，以及成本相對低廉，受到廣告主的青睞與重視，在廣告市場的規模明顯成長。近年來更有許多企業藉由搭便車(piggybacking)的關鍵字廣告方式，購買競爭對手、通路品牌或非企業本身的產品名稱等關鍵字詞組，作為自己的關鍵字廣告，增加企業廣告的曝光機會。 本研究以實驗法操弄消費者使用不同的搜尋策略，產生的搜尋結果與品牌預期一致性及類別關聯探討關鍵字廣告的效果，共計發放642份問卷經由多變量變異數分析等方法，得出研究結論如下： 1. 以產品名稱搜尋，消費者對知名品牌的廣告產品態度與廣告品牌態度明顯優於不知名品牌。 2. 以品牌名稱搜尋，消費者對與預期一致的品牌的廣告注意、正面廣告態度、廣告產品態度、廣告品牌態度皆明顯優於非預期的品牌。 3. 關鍵字廣告產品與消費者預期搜尋的產品關聯高時，則消費者對廣告注意與瞭解程度顯著高於產品類別關聯低之產品；同時，對關鍵字之正面廣告態度、產品及品牌態度皆優於產品關聯低的廣告。 4. 認知需求會增強消費者對廣告產品類別關聯高的關鍵字廣告的瞭解能力與提升對廣告產品的態度。 5. 認知需求對搜尋結果是否與預期一致或知名品牌之廣告效果的調節效果不顯著。 / As consumers are relying more and more on the internet, web advertising has become more mature on the consumers’ side, especially for keywords advertising. Advertisers have favored keywords advertising due to its ability to precisely target its customer and relatively low cost, which resulted in a significant growth in the advertising market. Recently, many companies started to use piggybacking as a keyword advertising method, buying keyword phrases of competitors, channel brands or product names to use as their own keyword advertisement, in order to increase the exposure of their corporate advertisement. This study used an experimental method to manipulate consumers using different search strategies, and investigated the influence of brand expected consistency and category relevancy. A total of 642 questionaires were analyzed by using MANCOVA analysis, and resulted in the following conclusions: 1. Search by product name: Consumers’ attitude toward advertising product and advertising brand were significantly better for well-known brands compared to unknown brands. 2. Search by brand name: Consumers’ advertising notice, attitude towards positive advertising, advertising product and advertising brand attitudes were significantly better for the expected consistency brand compared to inconsistency brands. 3. Consumers’ advertising notice, understanding, attitude towards positive advertising, advertising product and advertising brand were significantly better for highly relevant product categories compared to low relevant product categories of consumers’ search. 4. Consumers’ need for cognition enhanced the ability for consumers to understand the keyword advertising and raised their attitude towards the advertised product. 5. Consumers’ need for cognition regarding search results on the brand expected consistency or brand familiarity towards advertising effect was not significant to become a moderator.