Ok, so I'm HIGHLY tempted to bid on a specific trademarked keyword where, right now, only the official company has AdWords placement. now, before you say something, i realize it will get shut down... but my question is, what's the WORST that could happen? i have a private domain name, no links connecting my other sites to the landing page i'd be using, or any other things that would give away my identity... so will they just ask Google to shut down the campaign, or will it shut down my whole account, what?
If Google actually allows it from the get go, then the worst that could happen is you get a cease and desist letter from the trademarked company. Google won't be held accountable and/or won't enforce TM name bidding unless the company has gone through a specific procedure. The least they will do is disapprove your ads/and or kws. Companies are not automatically granted non-bid status just because they are a known company. After the company tries to get them on their side, they will just tell them to go through the proper procedure to not allow bidding on their name. My guess is they have already gone through the process if you don't see any ads and/or advertisers were not finding it profitable to do.
Not much happens, I got dinged by match.com I got a Trademark in Ad Content warning from google about my ad I am not sure why google did it, since my site has nothing to do with dating my ad was similar to (only I wasn't doing anything with hair color) hair-color-match.com Celebrity Hair color Match Match your hair to a perfect shade Violation - match com Too bad there wasn't a icon to click to say -- double check this google, I think I am right.
ok, i see. so basically i'll get warned by google, and they'll shut it down (but not my account), or i'll get a cease & desist at the worst (my name or info isn't associated with the site, though, so that's unlikely). is that a good review of what could/could not happen?
I had this happen once with t-mobile... I have to give up my domain name without compensation or fear a lawsuit... I did not fight it needless to say
You can bid on trademarked keywords all you like, you will have problems if the ad copy contains the TM term. Also, if you cannot have the TM in your ad copy, your quality score will suffer.
yeah, some algorithm is watching the advert threads, searching for their keyword, they send a complaint, and bang you lose your ad.. Or maybe google allows big advertisers inside search capability
From the AdWords point of view, you can have you keyword disapproved. Outside AdWords, you can be sued by the trademark owner due you created "confusion" for the users - but this is a bit rare.
Are you just bidding on the trademark, or are you using the trademark in your ad? Trademark holders can't do anything if you're bidding on their trademark - they can only request Google to takedown ads if the ad includes a trademark.
I would be more worried about Google shutting down all your ads full stop. I know from past experience that there's only so much Google will take before without warning they shut your account without so much as a proper explanation. My advice is to keep things above board right from the off, this will save you time in the long run
Google won't complain unless the merchant is complaining about this. You can't use Trademarked terms in your ads. Nobody said you can't bid on them. Well, GEICO thought overwise. It tried to sue Google for allowing PPC Marketers to bid on variations of Geico.com. But guess who won? Just so long as you don't mislead the surfer and disrupt the overall 'good user experience' that Google oh-so emphasizes on, you should be safe.