Google Trademark Policy Changes!

Google announces changes in their trademark policy for UK, Ireland and Canada and some other changes in the EU following. What this change means is that there is not going to be any protection from Google for brand terms in the pay per click ads. Most important resellers will be able to use a trademark in their ads. The same applies for affiliates.

The letter from Google below outlines all the changes with the relevant links:

Policy Changes For UK, Ireland & Canada

We are writing to inform you of a change to Google AdWords policy that may affect your Google AdWords account.

In an effort to provide more relevant results and a higher quality experience for our users, we will be adjusting our trademark policy in the UK, Ireland, and Canada to allow some ads to use trademarks in the ad text. From14 September 2010, ads which meet the below criteria will not be removed for trademark policy if they include a trademark in the ad text. The ads will have limited serving, showing only in the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US (where the policy already exists). Ads which may show with a trademark in the ad text include:

·   Ads which use the term in a descriptive or generic way, and not in reference to the trademark owner or the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term.

·   Ads which use the trademark in a nominative manner to refer to the trademark or its owner, specifically:

o Resale of the trademarked goods or services: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the goods or services corresponding to a trademark term. The landing page of the ad must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the goods or services corresponding to a trademark from the advertiser.

o Sale of components, replacement parts or compatible products corresponding to a trademark: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the components, replacement parts or compatible products relating to the goods or services of the trademark. The advertiser’s landing page must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the components, parts or compatible products corresponding to the trademark term from the advertiser.

o Informational sites: The primary purpose of the advertiser’s site must be to provide non-competitive and informative details about the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. Additionally, the advertiser may not sell or facilitate the sale of the goods or services of a competitor of the trademark owner.

This change will affect all ads in the UK, Ireland, and Canada.

To learn more about this trademark policy revision, visit http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?answer=186124 .

If you have ads in your account which were previously disapproved for trademark policy and that comply with the aforementioned criteria, you may submit those ads for re-review after September 14 and eligible ads may begin showing in the UK, Ireland, and Canada. For instructions on editing your ad text, please see

https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6272&hl=en_US.

The Google advertising program is managed by a set of policies which we develop based on several factors, including user and customer experience and business considerations. We review our policies regularly and make changes to keep them current and effective. Our goal is to have policies that are fair, consistent, and adaptable.

Policy Changes For EU/EFTA

From 14 September 2010, Google will no longer monitor or restrict keywords for ads served to users in the regions listed at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=186123, in response to trademark complaints. This change will bring our procedure in line with our current approach to keywords in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland and most of the rest of the world. Complaints received prior to 14 September 2010 will continue to be processed under the current procedure; however, any investigation of keywords in the affected regions completed prior to 14 September 2010 will no longer apply to keywords after that date.

After September 14 2010, whilst we will not prevent use of trademarks as keywords in the affected regions, advertisers will be able to complain about the selection of their trade mark by a third party if they feel it leads to a specific ad text which they feel confuses users as to the origin of the advertised goods and services. Google will then conduct a limited investigation and if we find that the ad text does confuse users as to the origin of the advertised goods and services, we will remove the ad.

To learn more about this trademark policy revision, visit https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=177578

Comments (0) | August 4th, 2010