Google has filed an appeal of a court decision that ordered the US Internet giant to stop digitising French books without publishers' approval, its lawyers said Monday.

"Google lodged an appeal on January 21" of the Paris court's verdict in late December that also ordered it to pay 300,000 euros (430,000 dollars) in damages to publishers here, said lawyer Alexandra Neri.

The ruling capped a three-year-old case brought by one of France's biggest publishing houses, Les Editions du Seuil, which claimed that thousands of its works had been digitised by Google without consent.

The tribunal ruled that by scanning entire books or excerpts and putting them on line, "Google has committed acts of copyright violation to the detriment of Le Seuil" and two other publishers.

La Martiniere had been seeking 15 million euros in damages and interests.

News of Google's appeal came after the US Department of Justice slammed a legal deal that would let the Internet giant scan and sell millions of books online.

It said the deal raised anti-trust and copyright concerns.