Am I allowed to use my competotors' trademarks as keywords?

[Syyll]

Is it permited (legaly and by Google) to place bids competitors trademark, using there names as keywords in my campaign? (without including the trademark keywords into the text ads or the landing page)

[Rehan]

Yes.
[adwords.blogspot.com...]

[fischermx]

Yes, until they complain to Google.

[Rehan]

Yes, until they complain to Google.

Google says at the link above:
"We monitor the use of a trademark because the trademark owner has filed a complaint. For ads targeting the US and Canada, we will review ad text but not keywords."

[edited by: Rehan at 10:37 pm (utc) on April 16, 2007]

[fischermx]

So, yes, until they complain to Google.

[Rehan]

Yes in North America.
Yes until they complain in the rest of the world.

:-)

[LucidSW]

I'll chime in too with a yes, until they complain to Google.

I'll add that this includes sports teams names. You can bid on "Chicago Cubs" for example but you cannot have that keyword in the ad itself. At least I could not for my ads and they were all rejected for all team names I tried.

[BDuns]

Nobody can touch your keywords...doesn't matter what I bid on...wouldn't that be ridiculous if you were not allowed to bid on names of the products you're trying to sell?

The only trademark restrictions are in your ad copy...can't have certain words appear in the text, because that could be potentially misleading, making your site look like the brand's official site etc.

[eWhisper]

Nobody can touch your keywords...doesn't matter what I bid on...wouldn't that be ridiculous if you were not allowed to bid on names of the products you're trying to sell?

It's important to note these are North America statements.

The EU is very different in terms of trademark laws and use of trademarks in AdWords campaigns.