Optimising for UK Trademarks - Any Precedents?

[Fruit and Veg]

I've got a client who would love for me to optimise his site using his competitor trademark terms and names. I've told him this isn't cricket and shouldn't be done plus he can do it to his hearts content on Google Adwords, but he now wants hard evidence of why this can't be done.

I've tried searching for hard evidence of the illegality or plain inhumanity of doing natural optimisation for competitor trademarks but have come up short. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I've found a couple of US based cases but nothing in the UK.

[jielian]

it is a good news

[Receptional Andy]

IANAL but if he displays trademarked words and phrases visibly on his pages there may be a risk that this infringes on UK trademark law. I'm not aware of any case history for this though and it will obviously depend on how it's done.

Using keywords in meta elements or as triggers for advertisments does have some prior case law, as in Reed Business Information vs Totaljobs.com [out-law.com]

Intellectual property and trademark law is a complicated business though, so if it's the legal aspects you're concerned with, I'd consult a lawyer.