Trademarked Keywords

Discussion in 'Google AdWords' started by akeeldin, Apr 27, 2005.

  1. #1
    I know this has come up before but I couldn't fine a difinitive answer.

    Can you have you have for example your Sports Shoe store ad appear in response to a trademark term e.g. "Nike" or "Reebok". I know you can't have these terms in the ad title or description but what about as a bidded upon keyword?

    This is what Google says in "Trademark Complaint Procedure – Trademark rights in US and Canada":

    But later on, this is what they say in "Trademark Complaint Procedure – Trademark rights outside US and Canada"

    So I can use "Nike" as a keyword but not "Adidas". Is this correct?
     
    akeeldin, Apr 27, 2005 IP
  2. Dejavu

    Dejavu Peon

    Messages:
    916
    Likes Received:
    53
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    Dejavu, Apr 27, 2005 IP
  3. nevetS

    nevetS Evolving Dragon

    Messages:
    2,544
    Likes Received:
    211
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    135
    #3
    I've been rejected because of triggering ads from trademarks in the past. I can't remember which one's right now.

    One thing to do is reverse the order of the words, if in fact the trademark is two words. So if you found you couldn't put an ad up on the keywords "martha stewart" you probably could for "stewart martha"
     
    nevetS, Apr 27, 2005 IP
  4. Merchantprince

    Merchantprince Peon

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    I believe there was a recent court case which impacted upon this policy. Google used to remove keywords which were trademarked if the offended party complained.

    Some years back one of my friends discovered that he could rake in sales for his real estate course by bidding on various iterations of "Carleton Sheets" (the infomercial guy). Then Google made him remove all the terms from his account (after about a year of making in thousands from his listings).

    Then, about nine months ago or so, I guess, there was a copyright case involving this very issue with G. The gist of the court's decision was that you can indeed bid on copyrighted and trademarked terms, but you still cannot use such terms in the ad copy or headline. That is, unless you're one of the 'big dogs' like Amazon.com who can do whatever the hell they like on Google, while the rest of us can only watch.

    Still, I have noticed that keyterms for brand names often get disabled or trialed after a brief run in my campaigns - but not always.
     
    Merchantprince, Apr 28, 2005 IP
  5. Merchantprince

    Merchantprince Peon

    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    Ah, here it is, I found it. From Perry Marshall, one of the gurus of Adwords issued a message to his subscribers some months back:

    http://www.doyoursearching.com/article_6.shtml

    excerpt:

    Google AdWords: Bidding on Trademarked Names

    The US Federal judge ruled in Google's favor today - it *is* OK to bid on trademarked terms, like company names, brand names, etc.

    The giant insurance company Geico sued Google for allowing competing advertisers to dilute their brand on Google Adwords, but Judge Brinkema said "There is no evidence that this activity alone causes confusion."

    Bottom line for you: You can bid on trademarked names, you just can't use those names in your ads.
     
    Merchantprince, Apr 28, 2005 IP
  6. noppid

    noppid gunnin' for the quota

    Messages:
    4,246
    Likes Received:
    232
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    135
    #6
    This is a bad copyright law. If we continue to accecpt this and not fight it, soon the big corps will be smart asses, ok they are already, and just continue to copyright words till we can no longer put any in type.

    That is really bad and we need to reject it.
     
    noppid, Apr 28, 2005 IP
  7. noppid

    noppid gunnin' for the quota

    Messages:
    4,246
    Likes Received:
    232
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    135
    #7

    We posted at the same time. I'm glad there is a judge that agrees with me!
     
    noppid, Apr 28, 2005 IP