adCenter Clears up Trademark Policy & Parameters (Dynamic Text)

[engine]

It seems there might have been some confusion over adCenter's trademark policy. So, in a recent message, adCenter's blog has tried to clarify the issue.

Trademark Policy

advertisers are required to agree that they will not bid on keywords, or use in the text of their advertisements, any word whose use would infringe on the trademark of any third party, or would otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party. There are a few exceptions to this rule.

Here are the exceptions:
Authorized resellers, providing information about the trademarked term (eg reviews), or in the generic term (eg. windows).

Parameters

On adCenter there are three types of dynamic text:

Use: Keyword {keyword}
To: Customize your ad based on search queries

Use: Destination URL {param1}
To: Change the destination URL based on search queries

Use: Placeholder {param2} {param3}
To: Revise ads using placeholders

[adcenterblog.spaces.live.com...]

[Receptional]

Not sure that helps me understand the policy. I was told last week by Adcenter that you COULD use a trademark term providing it wasn't to the detriment of the trademark owner. The blog implies you can only use it if you have implicit right from the trademark owner to do so.

So I interpreted the conversation last week as: I could bid on Coke if I was linking to a site listing the comparitive market share of Coke vs Pepsi by country, but not if the same site tried to favour Pepsi over Coke.

Not sure if the blog says the same thing or not.

Maybe I am thinking semantics and pedantics! Ah well. I guess the trademark concern form fixes any issues either way round quick enough.