Google AdWords Changes Trademark Policy In The UK And Ireland

Writing by Pay Per Click Journal on Friday, April 4, 2008 Leave a comment

Google is changing its trademark policy in the UK and Ireland. The policy will reflect the way it’s been in the U.S. since the very beginning, namely, that advertisers can bid on any keyword that is relevant to their business, including the competitions’ trademarks. Here’s what this means for advertisers:

If you are being beat by the competition, you can bid on their trademarks and advertise your own products and services as an alternative. If someone Googles a specific trade name, they’ll see your ad. You could potentially draw business away from the competition with a single ad. But be careful, the competition may be doing that to you!

Google has said all along that it will institute policies that help users find what they are looking for:

We want advertisers to use keywords that are most relevant to their business and our user’s interests. Google’s goal is to provide our users with the most relevant information, whether it is from our search results or advertisements. A key to achieving this goal with our ads is providing relevant choices and giving users the opportunity to determine which ads they find most relevant.

That’s a good policy and it’s one that Google has been consistent in maintaining. I believe that searchers deserve to find the best information they can on whatever it is they are looking for. Instead of trying to guess what they want and instead of letting big corporations bully them into maintaining a purity of trademark, Google should put searchers first. If a searcher is looking for information rather than a sales pitch then they are more apt to find it when there is competition for trademarks as keywords than they are when one company controls the usage of the word.

Another way this benefits users is that some trademarks are actually regular words when not used as trademarks. Coke, for instance, can be the soft drink or the nickname of a popular drug. Mickey Mouse may be a cartoon character, but there is also a little rodent called a mouse and if you operate on a PC you likely control your on-screen activities with a mouse. Plus, why shouldn’t users be allowed to bid on “IBM” if the name of their business is Idiot Buffoons of Mars?

I think you catch my drift. Google shouldn’t be put into a position to guess what searchers mean by their queries, nor should they be forced to protect someone else’s trademark. Good policy Google.

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