Competitors Domain Name

What are the Copy rights for!

[grabberbot]

Hi,

I would like to know that can you use your domain and your competitors domain name in your advertising keywords list as there are so many CPC Engines do they have to follow the copy rights as I try search my domain name at most of the Search Engines and found that most of my competitors are using my domain name for there CPC advertisements. Who to clam and How?

[Quadrille]

You'll need to read individual terms and conditions, and make complaints where appropriate. If your domain is unique and / or a registerd trademark / service mark, you may find they'll stop abuse if you ask them nicely.

I doubt there's anything to 'claim', as you'd find it pretty tough to show it harmed your business. But you'd need legal advice on that one.

There's plenty of previous discussions on this one, but I think the legal side remains cloudy except for registered marks.

[jtara]

See the Adwords forum here for discussion specific to Google Adwords. There are several threads there discussing this issue.

The short version is that it appears to be OK in the U.S. to use your competitor's trademarks as trigger keywords, but not in the EU. However, it is an area of unsettled law.

Currently, Google permits the practice in the U.S., while banning it in the EU and some other areas.