Google Inc. said Monday it would appeal a French court's ruling that it is guilty of libel because the search engine's Autocomplete function suggested defamatory words when the name of the plaintiff is searched.

The Superior Court of Paris also ordered Google last week to stop suggesting "rape", "rapist", "satanist," "sentenced" and "prison" when the name of the plaintiff, a man named only as Mr. X, is typed on Google search.

Google spokeswoman Anne-Gabrielle Dauba-Pantanacce said the search engine has complied with the order while it appeals the ruling.

The court rejected Google's argument that the disputed words were generated algorithmically or based on what other Google users have typed when querying Mr. X's name. It said Google showed no evidence to back its contention.

"Rape", "rapist", "satanist," "sentenced" and "prison" appears on the search engine field when the first letters of Mr. X's name is typed because he was associated with the charge of raping a 17-year-old girl. However, the court only convicted him of the lesser charge of "corruption of a minor," fined and sentenced to three years in prison on Nov. 3, 2008.

Mr. X later discovered that the defamatory words appear alongside his name when he searched it on Google prompting him to sue the search engine company for libel.