Adwords & Trademark Triggers January 30th, 2006 12:47 pm

No sooner had Google removed one advert from adwords that used our trademark as a trigger then another one appeared. Unfortunately it was over the weekend and we’ve had to wait until Monday morning to take action.

Emails have been sent to Google and the company using our mark. As expected they don’t think they’re breaking any rules and according to their email talking to their lawyers. That’s all well and good - the advert is no longer showing. The simplistic view of this is we’ve followed the adword trademark complaints procedure and under current rules our mark cannot be used as a trigger word.

It is difficult though to find a legal standpoint for the UK. In the US for example Geico lost a case against Google - the judge sided with the search engine as no confusion would arise from adverts triggered by their mark. In contrast in France Google has been successfully sued for trademark triggers (Links & Law).

At best it is a confusing situation. However, in my opinion, we have worked hard to develop a brand name online, we have trademarked that name and want to protect it. I don’t see why then a company, especially a competitor, can then hijack that name to advertise themselves. Therefore it is right we act to protect our trademark.

Fortunately the adwords complaint procedure is in place, and for now our mark is protected. Most people who we have contacted when dealing with trademark issues have been decent - and removed their ads without question. But there’s always the one or two who think they have the right to do as they please.

On one hand though Loquax should look at this as a positive situation. After all we must have made a mark if a company who claim on their websites that they are “probably the best comping service in the world” and that they are “the trusted king-pin within the comping industry” think so highly of our brand that they wish to be advertising on the back of it.

As one of my users said, how they love to know when their favourite site is being hassled by other comping services, ”if you can’t earn credibility, its easier to pinch it”!!

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