Trademarked terms and Adwords

What's fair and what isn't?

[hopelessnoob]

Okay, I got hit with a warning for bidding on keywords that were trademarked. I had bid on "ebay comic books" and CJ hit me with a warning.

The funny thing tho, I see a *ton* of sponsored links that clearly must be bidding on the "ebay + some other term". So what gives?

If you type 'ebay comic books', the first link on the right hand side is an affiliate link. In other categories, the affiliate links have been there for months.

So what am I doing wrong? CJ support tells me that it's against the TOS to bid on any set of keywords that contain "ebay" or a derivation of it. Yet it appears others are doing so.

All I want is a level playing field...

[jeep98]

Permission to bid on the advertiser's trademarked brands will vary by program. Some advertisers will allow it outright, some may put a ceiling on your max bids or limit you to specific terms, and others will prohibit it completely. Check w/ the AM or TOS to confirm.

Some programs reward their top affiliates by giving them permission to bid on certain trademarked terms...this "may" be what you're seeing in the ebay scenario (or the aff just hasn't gotten caught yet).

[Beagle]

You might find this thread interesting. It involves Google's AdWords, so I don't know if it affects CJ. But since it's a court ruling, it's something other companies besides Google will be paying attention to:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Kandevil]

what if they are just bidding on comic books with broad match............