Trademark complaints

How long does it take for Google to do anything?

[mistah]

Two weeks ago I sent a copy of our registered trademerk certificate to Google together with a signed letter containing the information that Google asked for in their email to me.

My competitor still has adverts showing on searches for "MyRegisteredTrademark" in my home market, selling products in the product category that my trademark is registered in. How long does it take Google to do anything about this sort of complaint? OK, it probably took a couple of days for my airmail letter to cross the Atlantic, but I would have expected Google to take this sort of thing more seriously.

[Shak]

Have you contacted them by phone/fax since the letter was sent?

Shak

[Ally_Cat]

I sent in our complaint 1 month ago as of tomorrow. I've contacted by e-mail since, but no response. I'm sure they're just dotting their i's and crossing their t's to make sure our competitor doesn't fall under "fair use" of our trademark. If they are doing the same with your case, it may be a while longer for you.

[mistah]

Thabks for the feedback. I'll try phoning them on Monday.

[hobbnet]

You should definitely called them. We have a large keyword campaign often using our competitors names. Every so often a company will figure it out and complain to google and it seems almost immediately after the complaint they take down our ads with their name in them without even asking.

In other words they are typically pretty good about respecting trademarks.

[mistah]

Anyone have a phone number for Google adwords? I would prefer a UK number, but US is OK.

[Ourgne]

Hello everybody,
I am very happy to have found this forum!

It arrives the same thing to me.
I sent a trademark complaint to google by fax to prevent them from selling my trademark to my competitors.
But they have not answered me yet.
It was one month ago.

Then I tried to send them differents emails by the spam report form...
but again no response...

If someone has a phone number to contact Adwords it interests me.

Thank you.

[BlueSky]

If it was copyrighted material, the DCMA requires them to act fairly quickly. Not sure what their legal liability and timeline is for enforcing others' trademarks. In the US, a person doesn't even have to formally register to claim a trademark on something. Trademark issues probably take longer to deal with because Google has to contact the other party first and hear their side of the story and then consult the laws in whatever country/state the trademark is held. I wonder how many staff attorneys they have.

[Ourgne]

I've filed a trademark complaint which is in fact a sales license problem...

[Shak]

Anyone have a phone number for Google adwords? I would prefer a UK number, but US is OK.

020 0725 8260 is the adwords support team, and this is the number which was given last time I requested it for a similar matter involving a webmasterworld member.

Shak

[webdiversity]

I think there have been some well known players in certain industries who do have trademarks trying to push their weight about through solicitors with threatening letters etc..

The silly thing is they were saying one thing, but the reality was that the word is reasonably generic and as a broad and phrase a lot of people would be bidding on it.

However, to be fair to them Google said not to worry as they had not received any trademark infringement request ( we weren't worried anyway, a day in court to explain to the high powered judges about phrase, broad, exact and negative, CTR, CPC, ROI, would have tied them up in knots).

I'd suggest that for as long as you have put the right things in place, a cease and desist with a note to ring Google will put the ball in their court, and if they deny that you have no right to it, then as long as you can validate the date/time someone signed for the paperwork you should be good to go.

The issue needs to be forced by you.

[Ourgne]

Shak> Thank you so much!

I will summarize their answer and reactions asap.