Trademark issues?

[zeus661]

How can a company claim rights to misspelled keywords. I set up an ad with a company that had 3 words in its name. I came up with about 200 misspelled keyword phrases and they were all disapproved. NONE of my keywords were listed as one I can not use.

This even happened when I used the same keywords to sell a similar product for another company.

What is your take on this? Is it fair?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

zeus661, I assume you are referring to misspellings of trademarked names.

If this is the case, it'll all change after the new trademark policy is fully implemented - currently planned to be by the end of the month. You should be able to use those words at that point, if I've understood you correctly.

AWA

[zeus661]

Yes, mispelled trademark keywords. Be nice is Google would have mentioned it in their email to me. Thanks AWA

[zeus661]

AWA,
Do you have a link or any other info about the trademark change? Thanks

[skibum]

It looks like bidding on trademarked terms is going to get murky. Geico just sued Google [webmasterworld.com] for something related to this, and it probably won't be the last suit.

Who knows when it will all be settled. Like the scumware lawsuits, it'll be interesting to see if companies start suing each other if they can't win a suit against Google. If that happens, ya gotta figure its gonna trickle down to the affiliates eventually.

At the time that article was published there were affiliates of other insurance companies bidding on the Geico trademarked terms.

Will merchants be held accountable for the actions of affiliates? Things will get interesting!

Seems like just yesterday search was so much simpler.

[blaze]

Will merchants be held accountable for the actions of affiliates? Things will get interesting!

Good point.

I think it might be a good idea to update affiliate agreements with terms such as not to infringe on trademarks or copyrights in the process of marketing your product.

[skibum]

Might it make sense for Google to give the top spot of a trademarked term to the trademark owner and then sell the rest?

That might eliminate or lessen any "confusion" in the marketplace while still facilitating competition.