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Trademarked Keywords - What's the Deal

         

georgiek50

3:03 pm on Apr 6, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Wondering if anyone can help me out with this. Find a pretty good niche that I want to set up a campaign for only Google doesn't let me use the word "widget" in my ad text.

I am not actually selling "widgets" but complementary products and its imperative that I use the trademarked term in the ad text. I wrote about an exception several days ago but ads still don't show and Google hasn't written.

Anyone have similar experiences with this subject matter and if so, have there been any favorable resolutions for you?

ryanfromaustin

4:05 pm on Apr 6, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



If the trademark holder has told Google to disallow it's use, you have to obtain written permission from that trademark holder to circumvent the rule. You can still bid on the term if you're in US, and I can't think of any scenarios where you *have* to use the trademark itself.

jtara

6:15 pm on Apr 6, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I can't think of any scenarios where you *have* to use the trademark itself

I can, and it came up in my advertising.

I advertised a cookbook. It is published by an organization that promotes weight loss, and includes the organizations's name in the book title. The name of the book is "The <organization name> Cookbook". Try to work around that!

This is the only trademark exception that I've requested that Google has denied.

Of course, the situation is absurd, and the trademark holders in this case are idiots. Imagine if they didn't allow supermarkets to include their name in ads for their licensed frozen dinners...

The latter situation wouldn't occur, because the law doesn't give trademark holders that power. The problem here is that Google is running scared and goes well beyond the provisions of the law. They give trademark holders powers that the law doesn't provide them.

deep_alley

6:06 am on Apr 7, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Well inconvinience to advertisers would be way better than getting sued. No trademark in the ad text is still okay. When its at keyword level, it gets very annoying. I should be able to show searchers when they search for my competitor, the products I'm offering.

BriGuy20

6:22 am on Apr 7, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I've found that simply requesting an exception works most of the time.