Hi all, I need some advice as I am new to Adwords. Basically I have been bidding indirectly on a companies trademarked term and they have sent me a letter to stop. Let's say the company is called Harry, I have been bidding on terms such as Harry's Legs, Harry's Hair, Harry's Arms etc but never just "Harry". is there any way I can stop my ads showing when people search for "Harry" but not the others? This is what the letter is referring to, so if I stop bidding on that, I should be safe. Campaign negative keywords would mean that all terms wouldn't show, correct?
Here's a thread on another forum about this subject: www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/3970121.htm I doesn't answer your question but as far as I'm concerned, you can bid on any keyword, trademarked or not. Nobody can stop you from doing this. Heck, Coke and Pepsi use each other's trademarks in their ads. Besides, "Harry" has nothing to do with "Harry's Arms" or Harry's other parts. I'm no lawyer but I don't think Harry has a leg to stand on, if I understand what you are doing correctly. Use phrase and exact matches such as "harry's hair" in quotes or square brackets. Don't bid on just the single word Harry. Google is probably expanding your keywords and why you show for just Harry. You could also add the negative -[harry] and if someone searches for just that word, your ads won't show. That's about all you can do. But I wouldn't take that cease and desist letter too seriously, unless their trademark appears in your ads. They can ask Google not to allow that.
Tell them to piss off - there's nothing they can do about it. Even if they could, they have to do it through Adwords' trademark complaint form. Unless you're doing something like using their TM'ed company name in the title of your ad, you're fine.
It depends on where you are in the world - in the US you can do this, in most of Europe you can't, and in some places it's a legal minefield waiting to blow up. Google loosened up it's policy on this in some countries in the last year or so, without considering how it correlates with civil law in those regions. In the UK Interflora are bringing a case against Marks and Spencers - their case is that "Just because Google’s AdWords policy allows this kind of advertising, it doesn’t make it legal." http://blog.interflora.co.uk/illegal-free-riding-on-the-interflora-brand/
I'm thinking the same as Lucid Web marketing, just add negative keywords and you should be good.. are your current keywords exact, phrase or broad?
I use a company name in my adwords marketing with no issues. In fact it's a huge retailer based in Arkansas (you certainly know the name) and I have never had an issue at all. Not with the retailer nor with Adwords.
This is the rule of thumb. If the keyword is making you money, (and a lot of it), it may be worth the fight. If it isn't, just drop it as it's not worth the hassle. There are companies that will come after you personally.
One of my clients is a hotel with no place for congress. The competitor has lots of space and has at least 1 congress per month. I always have an adgroup for congress with the competitor's name for one of the keywords plus a special landing page with information on the congress and a special price for the attendants. Sometimes, I even email the people from the congress to offer them our rooms as we are next door (we are cheaper) And we wont stop this practice as it is successful.