There's an NPO that is about helping people. They are the real thing. They don't make money, and they don't engage in public controversy.
There are some organizations out there that make money selling bowdlerized simulacrums of what the NPO gives for free.
In Google searches, the NPO gets #1 spot, as it should, but just to the right are a line of ads that include "### Doesn't Work!"
They obviously buy AdWords on the [copyrighted and trademarked] name of the NPO, so their ads come up in searches for the NPO.
Is there anything that can be done about this without having to go to a lot of courts? The NPO runs on poverty, but these treatment "alternatives" obviously make a great deal of money selling snake oil to desperate people. I doubt a solution that required hiring batteries of lawyers would work.
Is there anything that can be done about this without having to go to a lot of courts?
If the NPO registers their trademark with Google, they can prevent (or, create difficulties for) others using the NPO's name in their ad text. No lawyers needed, just the filing of the paperwork... and monitoring for those who get through the cracks...
ad text
That's the problem. They don't use it in the text of the ad. The "###" I referred to is not actually the name of the NPO, but more of a "nickname." The actual full name is in the AdWords they buy.
