Bidding on trademarks

Google says No, but there's plenty of ads doing it

[madmatt69]

Hi there,

I recently tried to make an ad and thought "I wonder if that's a trademarked term."

Sure enough, immediately google wouldn't let me proceed saying I have a trademarked term in the ad. No problem, just re-worded it.

But then now I see all sorts of adwords popping up with this trademarked term highlighted in the ad.

Is this a policy problem, or some sort of inability to flag those terms? It nailed me right off, I can't imagine how it would have missed these other ones.

[Atomic]

Could it be a dynamic keyword?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Is this a policy problem, or some sort of inability to flag those terms? It nailed me right off, I can't imagine how it would have missed these other ones.

madmatt69, implementation of trademark policy can be complex, and depends on a number of factors, including:

* In which countries are trademark rights held?

* To which countries have the ads have been targeted?

* What has the trademark owner specifically requested?

To take just one example of this last point, a trademark owner may decide to allow their affiliates to use the trademarked term in the ad, but not allow non-affiliates to do the same.

At the bottom line, your question will most likely need to be answered by AdWords support - who can review your account, and answer based on the specific details they find there.

AWA

[madmatt69]

Thanks for the answers.

Yes, this is an ad in a specific language targetting a specific country as well. So if one ad isn't allowed I can't see how another would be.

Is google unable to control the dynamic keywords? The words do appear in bold in their ads, so I'm assuming they're probably dynamic.

How long does it take before google can notice that? Seems strange they couldn't filter it automatically.

[PeteM]

If you feel that what you're doing is right then ask for an exception. If, for example, you're selling ipods and google says that ipod is a trademark then request an exception. There's no way that you can sell ipods without mentioning the word ipod!

[madmatt69]

Sure there is, you can be creative :)

I have no problem not using the trademarked term. The problem I have is how others are able to use it. Overnight about three other ads poppped up using the trademarked term in their ads where there was very little competition before.

It just seems strange that so many pop up at once, using terms they technically shouldn't be allowed to as the adwords interface usually blocks it right off.