An NPR article/broadcast mentioned a French court ordered Google to stop displaying AdWords for competitors of Louis Vuitton when web users searched for the luxury goods maker. There are similar cases being brought in the United States. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4490233
You know what, Google can show anything they want for searches done. That is very sad since Google adwords also shows Luis Vuitton for searches done on DKNY
I had a number of my adwords put on hold because they had other companies names in them such as eloan
And rightly so. What we are talking about is trademark enfringement, these companies have well know brand names that they have trademarked. These companies have spent millions on developing brand awareness and a network of dealers/agents. Using your competitors name in your keywords is wrong, and make no bones about it, it is deceptive advertising.
How can it be deceptive advertising? You are searching for Louis Vuitton, on the left side of the screen you have the official website, on the right side you have places were you can order Louis Vuitton products online. This is great for the web users. I've made some shopping with this method.
if I own a handbag store, someone comes in and asks for Louis Vuitton handbags and I offer them better quality and more unique handbags for a lower price, how am I not allowed to do so? I have top rankings for "handbags" until I sold the site. Louis Vuitton has the lowest quality merchandise for the highest price. Their products all look the same and live on only the name. DKNY is my favorite and preferred by most who take a second look. Prada is my #2 and Fendi my #3. I know a lot about handbags but once again, I sold my site. I am all about quality and Louis Vuitton is very deep on the bottom, not MOO but analyzed through a lot of feedback.
Will Google be able to display results from a search term Louis Vuitton competitor? I'd require the French to get a visa to visit Google.
lmao but serious, you come to my store and ask for a Fendi handbag, am I not allowed to show you other merchandise from a different manufacturer as well?
I think there are quite a few things to consider in this. First, if you go into a sears and ask for craftsmen tools and a snap-on guy comes out of the woodwork and tells you about his tools, the sears/craftsmen guy would get a little pissed. Only because that would be on the property of Sears. When I search for Craftsmen tools on the internet, it is on MY computer and I am searching for the tools through and independant advertiser. If I open the phone book looking for Sears, can I expect to see ads for other stores? Sure. I'm looking for Sears but I see JC Penny ads. Can Sears have the courts order the phone book not to list competitor ads on the same page? Doubt it. I'm a little curious how all this is going to come out.
This is a little strange. I suppose some things get through the woodwork. You can't put adwords on trademark'ed terms - but I think they apply that loosely. I know you can't put something up for "Toys R Us", but it works the same if you put it up for "R Toys Us". There are so many trademarks out there, Google can't be expected to protect all of them. At the most, they should be expected to respond if there is an obvious case of infringement. The thing is - is it really trademark infringement? I mean, we're not talking about anything other than results from a keyword search. MAYBE, you could get an ad to stop displaying your trademark in an ad, but come on now, to prevent them from coming up at all in a search result? What about vendors who want their trademark's used? Like EBay affiliate programs, etc. Then there's the issue of common trademark - different line of business. Google is a target because of their revenue. They've done nothing that hasn't been done before.
I keep meaning to sign up for adwords just to see how they actually work. Some characters down our way appear to target my husband's name (Andrew King)- and surely only because he's a competitor with a high profile. If you search on http://www.google.com/search?q=%22andrew+king%22 I just did a search and only 2 ads come up. One for a book store, that's cool because a) he's written books and b) it's often history books on King Andrew, king this etc that they catch, not my guy. The other crowd who are always there don't sell his books or services so it looks, to us, as if they are trying to divert our potential traffic. We use it as a monitor of their paranoia! Feel free to click the link and send them broke As for suing Google, get over it!
Nope I see them. I wonder if they're just advertising for new zealanders. And it's just gone midnight here so I wonder whose timezone their advertising days follow...