Allowing approved retailers to bid on restricted brand keywords

fortune 500 Global company with a huge brand

[GerBot]

I'm involved with the Google PPC for a Fortune 500 global company. Recently they registered their trademarks with Google to stop their direct competitors bidding on their brand.
However this has also stopped their 50,000+ authorized retailers bidding on their brand. This causes a problem because there is a 'real world' agreement allowing these retailers to market using the clients brand.

Are there any case studies, examples or systems at Google that allow us to work around this problem?

My current thoughts revolve around:
Supplying Google with a large list of approve brand bidders
Supplying all retailers with a templated approval letter that they can submit to Google to release the brand keywords
Remove the branded keywords and limited trademark terms in Google and work harder at stopping the competition bidding directly on the brand.

[AdWordsAdvisor2]

GerBot,

Supplying Google with a large list of approve brand bidders
Supplying all retailers with a templated approval letter that they can submit to Google to release the brand keywords
Remove the branded keywords and limited trademark terms in Google and work harder at stopping the competition bidding directly on the brand.

Of these three options, the second would probably be the most efficient for you and our trademark team. The current trademark enforcement policy allows for the trademark holder to authorize use of their trademark terms in specific accounts via a letter on their letterhead faxed to Google. As long as the letter you give your retailers has their AdWords account number in it, or a place to add the number to the form letter, it should suffice.

And just to be clear, registering your trademark with us does not prevent competitors, or retailers, from bidding on the term. It only prevents them from using the term in their ad text.

AWA2

[Khensu]

So you are saying I can bid on "xyz widgets" as a keyword but I am not allowed to put it as text the ad copy? I am thinking direct competitors here not just random brand names. Actually direct past cometitors, my product is now free to download.

[edited by: Khensu at 2:02 pm (utc) on July 16, 2006]

[jtara]

My understanding is that what AWA2 said is true for the U.S. but not for every country. There are some countries where the law is different - or interpreteted differently - or where Google lost a court case - where they WILL prevent you from bidding on a competitor's trademarked term.

[Khensu]

So I could establish a campaign of my top 5 ex competitors (in the US), use their brand names as keywords and run my normal ad copy (Download Free Widgets, just like the widgets they are selling) and they can't touch me?

[edited by: Khensu at 2:57 pm (utc) on July 16, 2006]

[skibum]

Google won't do anything to stop you from doing that but you may hear from the owner of the TMs you are bidding on and have to deal with it without Google being any part of it.

[AdWordsAdvisor2]

Khensu,

Yes, in the US, we only enforce trademarks in the ad creative. We will generally advise against using a competitor's trademarks as keywords as the ROI is usually below what you would expect if you advertised on normal, product related keywords.

jtara is correct, and my original answer was overly US specific. Enforcement will vary slightly from country to country, but in general it is at the ad text level.

AWA2