According to ICrossing.co.uk, September 14th is the day when Google changes their trademark policies in the UK, Ireland, and Canada, to reflect that in the U.S. and possibly permit other companies to mention your trademarked terms in their Google Adwords/AdSense ad copy.
Currently, Google permits other companies to bid on your trademarked terms, but they CANNOT make mention of your brand in their ads without permission. This may change somewhat.
What does this mean to you ... our SEP readers:
1. in essence, it means Google has opened itself up to a myriad of scams and fake sites, designed solely for the purpose of redirecting your hard earned traffic to 'informational' type sites. Your marketing efforts have lead to the success of your trademarked terms, so why let other capitalize on it. Tom Jones from iCrossing said it well ... and I'll paraphrase, Google itself has said it does not want to police the internet, except now its declared itself as such.
2. if you are an affiliate, this is possibly good news for you.
3. BE VIGILANT in tracking others' use of your trademarked terms.
Questionable Google ... very questionable.
The irony is that Google has been getting sued for this in the U.S. and seems to be losing more then they’re winning, or at least losing more than they used to. I wonder why they’d go the opposite direction?
Seems like an odd move from Google.
Jeff – any advice on best way to track others use of trademarked terms? I have Google alerts on key terms but don’t think they’d catch adwords using our trademarked words.
@Pete. So true. It makes no sense to me, but then again, I’m not privy to all the information. On the surface, it would seem to be counter to their “Don’t be Evil” slogan though.
@ Kathryn Lagden. Great question. We’re looking to see if any such solutions exist. I will let you know what we find. Thanks again!
.-= Jeff Quipp recently posted: Facebook Acquires 18 Social Patents In Its Virtual Arms Race Against Google =-.
@ Kathryn – we couldn’t find anything that would look for mentions within AdWords ads, so brilliant idea if you’re willing to develop it 🙂
.-= Jeff Quipp recently posted: Ruud Questions- Ed Bennett =-.
Thanks for investigating Jeff. If only I had time, money, and a developer…I’d be all over it 😀