The question shouldn't be 'why can't you have adsense on domains with adsense in the name', the real question is shorter : Why can't you have domains with adsense in the name? And the answer is, because adsense is a trademark belonging to Google, and if you register a domain with adsense in it then Google can prove in court that you intentionally violated their trademark and you can lose not just the domain but also your house and life savings and spend the rest of your life in jail. Okay, that's possibly a slight exaggeration, but I've received a trademark violation lawsuit and it was very unpleasant. Plenty of people seem to be getting away with these Google trademark violations right now... but you can't expect Google to actually pay you money for adsense on your illegal domain!
That's kind of tight! What if I want to make a Ford repair tips site I can't use Ford in the domain name, How about in the page title, or even in the content, it's still a trademark isn't it? Are we going to get like televisions that censor advertising signs on the streets and the nike logo from some guy's T-shirt when taking an interview?
Trademark violation is always trademark violation, so if you want to make a Ford repair tips site, you definitely can't have Ford in the domain. Sure you may get away with it, but you have no legal rights to the domain so you may wake up one day and it's been removed from your account, and you can also be sued. Having trademarks in page titles is probably okay, so long as it's a real title like 'Ford Repair Tips' (not something like 'Ford Website'). But I have received threatening letters from lawyers about trademarks in keyword meta-tags. If you were the owner of a trademark, you may see things very differently... Haven't you ever seen logos blurred during interviews? I don't know if that's directly related to this specific issue, but it's certainly not new - they've been blurring logos for ages, though not always - depends on the circumstances I guess.
adsense.com is not owned by Google. It was registered before Google came up with Adsense. Therefore if indeed a violation had taken place, Google is the violator. PS. This is taken from the adsense.com site "If you think you can get rich quick placing other people's ads on your site or blog, please contact Google who has taken and used our business name without permission or compensation."
That is true, but prior usage is a valid reason to use a trademark. The owners of adsense.com have proof of prior usage, so they are not in violation of the trademark. Of course that does not apply to this person's question, since I doubt they registered their domain prior to Google's trademark application : October 13, 2003 That is assuming that trademark law is simple. It isn't. Many words are trademarked multiple times, it depends on the circumstances of usage.