Berlin court rules Google AI Overviews are just a new search format, not original content

A Berlin court dismissed a perfume company's trademark suit over AI Overviews that mentioned its brand alongside cheaper knockoffs and linked to those sites. The court treated Google's AI summaries as "a new search result format" that aggregates third-party content rather than original Google statements, finding Google has no "decisive influence" over the summarized content. The ruling directly contradicts a recent Munich decision that held Google liable for false AI Overview claims by treating the summaries as Google's own words. The split sets up an open legal question across Germany about whether generative search is publishing or aggregation, with major implications for liability across the EU.

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