Pretty much the title explains it, but here are the details. I am using a popular/well known company name in my Google Adwords searches. So whenever someone types in that company's name, my ad appears in the Google sponsor. I have already been contacted by their lawyers and received probably 2 warnings from them regarding having their company name/trademark removed from my Adwords or else they'll sue. After some time and discussion, we decided to have it removed because we didn't want to spend money getting a lawyer to look into this.. though we actaully did, the lawyer seemed clueless about what google adwords even was... so a real waste of money there. Not wanting to spend MORE money, we decided to remove it. It really sucks to remove their name/keyword because we sell the same/similar product, and a handful of our sales come from that keyword. We sell a similar product of theirs for about 1/3 the price since theirs is brand name. So does anyone know what the legalities of this is? Am I allowed to use their name as a keyword? I've read up some other stuff online regarding Google vs. Geico and other stuff, but wanted to see if anyone else knew something about this. I'm posting this in Legal Issues as well as Google Adwords since it's a mix of both.. feel free to remove one of them from whichever you think is best Mods. Thanks!
Here's a quick example for anyone else reading this post. Pepsi (Them) Jababagooey (Me, some random company name) 1.We both sell soft drinks. But I don't mention the word Pepsi in my adword. 2. I have the trigger keyword Pepsi as one of my keywords in adwords. 3. Someone goes to google and does a search for the trigger keyword, "Pepsi". 4. My ad appears saying something like... Soft Drink Try our great tasting soft drink today! When you click on the link, it leads you to a landing page on our site that says, "We offer delicious soft drink with similar taste as Pepsi." Can anyone tell me which part of that is wrong? Or all of it is wrong? Also, whoever replies, please let me know if you are SURE of what you're saying, or you are just giving your OPINION and saying what you THINK is the correct answer. I'd prefer to get the correct answer, than just someones opinion or what they think might be right. Thanks to anyone for the help.
An internet forum really isn't the place to go for reliable legal advice, so insisting you don't want people to give their opinion is just plain daft. So - this is my opinion - google say in their guidelines on trademark use "If the advertiser is using the trademark in ad text, we will require the advertiser to remove the trademark and prevent them from using it in ad text in the future. Please note that we will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint." http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=50006&cbid=-19o67nirzzofa&src=cb&lev=answer which would seem to indicate that what you are doing is legal. However, it is also my opinion that I wouldn't risk being sued for a large sum of money without both asking google for a clarification, and taking proper legal advice.
adwords sez we can use trademark in keywords, but not in the ad text. Like - my ad cannot say OPRAH magazine, but my keyword can. As for getting sued, that's totally off the hook, but I'm not a lawyer.. However, if you are promoting an affiliate product, your affiliate terms may require your site NOT to outrank the merchant's site. If google is allowing it, why should YOU be sued?
Seems totally legal, but it's always a grey area. Remember that half the power of lawyer's comes from empty threats. Look up the GEICO vs. Google ruling from 2005. Here's a summary that applies to you:
Right or wrong can often be irrelevant - if the cost of defending the case could materially affect you. Yahoo sued me because I owned YahooYippee.com. I figured that, because "yahoo yippee" has a separate definition (in some dictionaries) than "yahoo", that I could win such a case. But because they took it too the courts, I was unwilling to spend money on lawyers to try and keep it. On the other hand, when businesses piss me off, I' like to publish my opinions online, and mad\ke sure they appear high in the SERPs. Several times said businesses have threatened to sue, and knowing I have only stated an opinion and facts (nothing libellous), I have called their bluff - and nothing more came of it. Ultimately, look at our big you foe is, guess the likelihood of them going through with it, and make a decision.
I have plenty of clients who bid on competitor's trademarked names and terms as keywords, you're just not allowed to use their tradermark in the ad text. Whether it's ethical is another matter - with my own company I choose not to do this, as I would not want them to do it to me....
People in this thread are all for it, and say it's "okay" to do it and allowed to continue doing it... I would probably like to agree with everyone here that, "if google allows it, then it's allowed as long as you don't use their trademark in your ad." Yet in the thread I posted in the Legal section they're all against it and said they can sue and will win my ass... http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1209577
Okay...here's another analogy.... Let's say, I don't use that company's trademark in my ad or even in my trigger keywords. Here's an example... Company trademark name is... Canadas Tastiest Cows Inc. My trigger keywords are... Canadas Tastiest Canadas Cows Tastiest Cows etc.. And my ads are listed to show up for broad searches.. So now someone does a search for Canada Tastiest Cows, and my ad shows up beside their name because I have trigger keywords that contain those word in their trademark... NOW... is THAT trademark infringement and are they right to sue and can they win, if they decide to sue?
Interesting topic. I bet if you asked Google, you'd get a more definitive answer. Or contact an adwords certified specialist. I know that there is, in fact, an exam you must pass with google to become Google Adwords Certified. Look it up.
I've also found a few examples... The searched word "Toyota" triggers a few ads from Toyota themselves, as well as a few other small companies, but also an ad from HyundaiCanada. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&q=...chercher&meta= Keyword: Honda. You find Hyundai Ad in that trademark keyword, as well as Ford and some other small company. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&q=...chercher&meta= Keyword: Audi. You find BMW as the first Ad, as well as a bunch of other small companies using the word Audi in their ad. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...G=Search&meta= As you can clearly see here. Many BIG corporate companies, are using their competitors trademark name as a trigger keyword for their ads. What's going on here? How come these guys haven't sued each other yet and how come all these guys are doing it to each other?
I am not sure of the law elsewhere but in the UK the principle behind trademark law, as I understand it, is to avoid misleading or confusing a consumer. It seems to me that for that to happen the trademark word would have to be published, i.e. on view, to the consumer. Since your keywords are not published and are, furthermore, theoretically private, bidding on them cannot be a transgression whereas, using them in your advert could be.
interesting post yes you can do that. but how can you make it relevant when you are not able to mention the keywords in ad texts. that'll give you a big disadvantage out of it, won't it?
I've bid on search terms for very large UK travel companies before (first choice, thompsons etc) - there is nothing they can legally do about it, eventually it just turned into a bidding war where they bid on our brand name too. As long as you're in a country where Google allow it (they don't in every country) then go ahead and use their brand names in your keyword selection - as has previously been said though, Google won't allow you to use it in your ad text "As you can clearly see here. Many BIG corporate companies, are using their competitors trademark name as a trigger keyword for their ads. What's going on here? How come these guys haven't sued each other yet and how come all these guys are doing it to each other?" This is the thing - they're still bidding because they can't be scared off by bully boy tactics like calling the lawyers in - because they can afford good legal advice which tells them to just go ahead. You may well get threatening letters but there is nothing they can legally do - precedents have already been set on this front...
If you're surprised then you either work in a country where it isn't allowed, or you don't keep up with current Adwords changes / news. Google has looked into this for every country they allow adverts in - with teams of lawyers in every country, and you can rest assured that they'll be the best money can buy in each of these countries