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Google lied? – PPC trademark restrictions NOT lifted in UK?

May 16th, 2008 by philip.wilkinson

So, I’m been hearing a few things around the grapevine about Google not actually having lifted keyword trademark descriptions on quite a few brands even though they made a big song and dance about it in the UK, in fact saying:

“Please note we have made a policy revision that applies to complaints we receive regarding trademarks in the UK and Ireland. Beginning May 5th, 2008, we will no longer review a term corresponding to the trademarked term as a keyword trigger. However, we will continue to perform a limited courtesy investigation of complaints regarding ad text purported to be in violation of a trademark.”

So, can anyone tell me why a ton of brand names are still being protected by the Google Adwords system either when you try and write the ads or a day letter when an email arrives from them saying “ad disallowed due to trademark reasons”?

For some evidence, check out this campaign running on the outdoor clothing site Webtogs.co.uk (noting the banned phrases in red and dated today):

Taking this a bit further I thought of trying out a few more major brands and came across some inconsistencies (click on the image to see it enlarged):

See how Disney, Yahoo, eBay, and Virgin seem ok (but I wouldn’t be surprised I’d get an email about them being disallowed in a few hours), yet Google and Amazon are banned for “trademark reasons”!

So, has Google lied to us? Was this just a big stunt to get some publicity and more ad money going their way?

2 Responses

Nic Brisbourne writes:
May 18th, 2008 at 8:54 am

Phil – reading the Goog announcement it seems to say that the default will be no protection of Trademark terms, but on request they might protect the terms – which is consistent with what you show in the results above.

Obviously not protecting terms gives them more revenue, but risks annoying the trademark owner, who might well be a major customer. So I guess they are trying to strike the balance.

From memory UK law in this area is slightly unclear, which would also push them towards this approach.
philip.wilkinson writes:
May 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am

So basically – the rule applies unless Google makes a load of money from the advertiser on PPC, in which case they make an exception?!