High traffic trademark keyword variations - smells

Google seems to show favoritism to big accounts

[RichardM]

This one seems to be shock and somewhat surprises me. I manage a high traffic website. Our company has subscribed to one the the largest online services for search intelligence. I recently and carefully started playing around with trademark keyword variations I found that are really amazing. For example, the trademarked term Autofinder does not show ads due to the advertisers request to Google based on proving their trademark. However, auto finder cannot be trademarked and has an almost equal amount of high traffic.
The instant I placed the keyword it automatically showed on hold. I know due to our research that the term receives hundreds or thousands of daily searches and it's on hold? Also I did the same with other similar terms and the same or even automatically disabled. How can they disable a non-trademarked term like "find a car" when there is a trademark for Findacar that is registered. I am starting to smell something real fishy. Any comments.

[inasisi]

It is possible that when people search for "Auto Finder", they are looking for "Autofinder" and hence the CTR on other ads are very poor and hence they go to On Hold.

[cline]

My experience is that Adwords' editorial staff is straining under the load of editing for trademark usage. I am constantly having to run searches to see whether competitors are violating Adwords' trademark rules, and frequently finding and reporting such violations.

[ScottG13]

Where specifically do you report these violations?

Thanks!

[AdWordsAdvisor]

How can they disable a non-trademarked term like "find a car" when there is a trademark for Findacar that is registered.

Similar questions about trademarked terms and disabling have come up several times recently - and again I would like to make the point that disabling is a keyword performance issue, and is unrelated to any potential trademark issues.

Put another way, if a keyword is disabled, it simply means that it has had a CTR below the minimum standard. It does not mean that it has been disapproved by a reviewer. This is a very important distinction.

Where specifically do you report these violations?

ScottG13, I'm not really sure what sort of violations you're referring to.

Do you mean that you are a trademark owner who has gone through the formal process of asking that your trademark not be used in ad copy by others, and that you have spotted a violation?

If that is the case, then simply write AdWords support from within your account, and provide the details needed to check into your report. Ideally, you would also copy/paste the ads(s) into your email, being sure to capture the Display URL.

AWA

[suzyvirtual]

I think inasisi has the answer spot on. people don't search for "auto finder" without having that brand "autofinder" in mind. So, though autofinder cannot force the trademark issue, the CTR is probably really poor for and company that isn't autofinder, therefore the keywords historical performance on the system is bad enough for it to automatically go on trial. If you still want to use the keyword, the impending algorithm changes should actually allow you to continue.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Just realized that I probably should have included these links, for ScottG13's benefit. The second link is particularly important.

What is Google's trademark policy?
[adwords.google.com...]

Trademark Complaint Procedures
[google.com...]

AWA