What kind of turn around should I expect?
Do you actually hear from them with a decision?
We've filed two complaints with Google, and are now aggressively persuing legal avenues for resolution with the party running the advertisements at this point (not google, mind you) - even though we are clearly the owner of the trademark in question!
Some feedback on prior experiences would be helpful to set our minds at ease (somewhat).
Thanks!
We've filed two complaints with Google
Did you send notice to Google using their specifications for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? [google.com...]
[google.com...]
Welcome to Webmasterworld [webmasterworld.com]
Hopefully our friend AdwordsAdvisor will be along very soon to give the official route for this sort of problem, till then hang tight.
Shak
Here is another thread that has some more information about the process:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Basicially a competitor of our is misleading customers to their site by using our name as a "trigger". Pretty obvious infringement on our trademark, in my opinion. Our name isn't used in the ad, but our trademark is the triggering phrase for the ad (our product name isn't a common word by any stretch)...
We don't have a "registered" trademark, though this is pending, and in the filing stages, which takes time, unfortunately. We do have clear common law rights to the trademark, with evidence of date of establishment, first usage, etc. Needless to say our lawyer is pretty excited about it, but he's a lawyer and would be...
Do you know if Google keeps a db of trademarked terms, or do we have to go through this hassle everytime someone tries to get sneaky?
* Turn-around time varies with the volume of requests being processed - and of course Google will work to complete your request as quickly as possible.
* Yes, you will receive a follow-up notification, and
* The Trademark Complaint Procedure is available in the AdWords FAQ: [adwords.google.com...] Once there, just click the 'trademark complaint procedure' link to be taken to the complete document.
What exactly do adwords accept as a trademark? Do they only accept companints from registered trademark holders? Or are common law trademark rights enough?
What happens when different companies hold different trademark rights in different contries?
What happens when companies in the same country hold the same trademarks in different categories? E.g. Acme Construction, and Acme Soft Drinks.
I submitted a compaint using the Google trademarks complaint procedure last week on one of our registered trademarks, so I'll let you all know how I get on. It should be a cut and dried case - one of our competitors is using our registered trademark as a trigger for an ad promoting a directly competitive product in our home market.
