Received A Notification In Harsh Terms Warned By GOOGLE

I have just received a notification in harsh terms that I was warned by GOOGLE because I have used the Youtube Downloader as one of my keyword, which is against the policies of ADWORDS. I make all my efforts but cannot find out the related information about such cases. It is said that YOUTUBE has brought such accusations before which seemingly didn’t work. As we all know, this kind of products are still available in the market. I was wondering whether there is anyone who knows how to deal with the ADWORDS and make me continue with my product, which is some kind of VIDEO DOWNLOAD. It is very appreciated for your advice.

 

Your problem is two-fold:

1. Google owns youtube and I assume don't want unauthorized software to be associated with youtube and/or,
2. youtube is a registered trademark - google doesn't accept ads with trademark terms.

My advice would be to rewrite your sales piece, ads, software to be a more general video downloader without specifically mentioning youtube by name for example, you could say: works on all video sharing sites, etc.

 

end of story.

 

are u sure google doesnt accept ads on keywords which are trademark ?

 

they have a clear published policy on this.

 

Not sure ... however there a lawsuit previously of some american airlines involving this keyword issue only. So google it.

 

What is Google's trademark policy?

 

Searching in Google, I am unable to find a single instance where a well known product name does not result in paid links from second-tier commercial sites piggybacking off of the name used by the better known company.

 

my product is a Video download and conversion Program, it can download youtube video, so i use the keyword" youtube video downloader" or "video downloader", they converted well before google banned my ads

 

i was surprised i cant use "WoW" in my ad's headlines due to trademark issues...seriously...

 

Don't mess with google all they'll end it all for you!

 

The thing is the trademark policy is there because some guy in G's legal department said it ought to be there. It's a bit like real life. There's all these laws and regulations that are hardly ever followed until someone brings offenders to light.

My neighbour who is a builder of some sort parks his huge vehicle outside his house. It's against council law but he'll continue to park it at home until someone lodges a formal complaint.

Same thing with Adwords. As you say lot's of companies piggy backing off others keywords. I make sure that all my clients are bidding on their competitions names (it works really well). Noone complains and if they do, the worst that can happen is that G asks you to stop bidding on those keywords. (most don't complain although I did have one listed company contact me a while ago to stop bidding on their trademarked name )

 

At some point, this whole trademark issue descends into madness because google is scared of being sued. If a trademark exits because of a unique name like microsoft, youtube, coca cola, then one can understand. But if somebody has trademarked a common english word like "ideal" then it becomes crazy. I recently had a keyword declined for trademark reasons because it had the word "ideal" in it - go figure. If I had used the word in a newspaper ad, I would be okay but NOT on King Google...

 

As I understand it, it also depends what country you are based in. In the US it seems G will not allow the use of trademarks as keywords, elsewhere, e.g. for me in the UK, it is okay.

It does seem, from comments here and elsewhere, that Google are. perhaps, overly zealous on the interpretation of trademarking law. Although I stand to be corrected on this, the main point is that trademark protection can only be cited where there is a liability to mislead or confuse the public/ consumer, i.e. you cannot use a company logo or graphic similar to an existing one but, more importantly for adwords users, there is , theoretically, no transgression if you use a trademarked name or word if advertising a totally unrelated product, e.g. I think you may find that "Ideal" is owned by Nestle or some such company and was/is the tradename of a tinned milk product (as I recall) therefore, you could not advertize a milk product using the word but if you are using it in its normal meaning as part of your ad, or you sell "Ideal video widgets" there should not be a conflict. Of course, it is much easier for Google to simply blanket ban everything than argue the point with trademark owners.

 

It's about cost too. Making decisions on a case by case basis would take lots of time and might require people with legal/trademark knowledge. Much easier to auto-ban or blanket ban everything as you say. The shareholders are happy but advertisers are left dissatisfied.

 

You are 100% correct. You've hit the nail perfectly on the head. I agree completely.