jkwilson78 - 11:17 pm on Jun 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

As long as they are not misleading people into thinking they are your company, and not using your product names or company name in their ad then how does it violate a trademark?

It's advertising space, if we really wanted to get picky with all the trademark stuff then technically when someone searches on something like "Dell" then only ads and web sites owned by Dell should show up. No one seems to have a problem with web sites getting free traffic under a trademark search but do if the traffic is being paid for?

Perhaps you search on a name brand because it is all you know and then see an ad for a product you never knew existed by another company and it turns out to be a better choice?

I do this all the time as a consumer because it is an easy way to find similar products and services. It's logical and common sense. You advertise where your competitors potential customers are as long as you don't misrepresent yourself.

I know many will disagree with me 1000% on this but as long as the other ad in no way tricks or confuses a person into thinking they are the name brand I see no problem.

A while back I discovered the keyword "falcon" is trademarked to this day I've never heard back from Google why despite repeated inquiries.