Trademarks in Adwords

[carlosvandoogle]

Hi All,
I'm a new user so be gentle with me folks.

I have just been speaking to a client re: adwords.
He was advertising with adwords for terms relating to Peugeot, he has informaed me that Peugeot have requested that google block all adwords with the terms Peugeot in, is this now the norm???? or is it more of a test case by google as the are still allowing all other adwords for all of the other major car firms - BMW, merc's hondas, ford's etc etc

thanx in advance

[dazb2004]

if a company (lets say peugeot) own a trademark on a word, then they can use google's trademark complaint form (http://www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html) to register the trademark in adwords.

They can choose whether to ban the use of the keyword all together, or just ban the use of it in your ad text.

If the trademark is passed by google then peugeot can pick and choose who is allowed to use thier trademarked keywords and who isn't.

I would suggest contacting peugeot directly and asking for permisssion to bid. If you are making peugeot money (i.e. a reseller or something) then you'll more than likely be allowed to bid.

hope this helps!

[abbottsys]

Yes, I would say this is becoming the norm. You can use trademarks as keywords, but not in ad copy if the owner has registered with Google. Some owners do, some don't. Your Peugeot case is an example - you can use it as a keyword but not in your ad copy - unless you want to try something like PeugeotCars or buyPeugeot both of which I predict would slip by all the checks ;)

[Kaya]

I have experienced this most car brands. When working with BMW they had to fax over a special excemption request to Google.

[carlosvandoogle]

Thanks for the info chaps.

Yes it certainly does seem to be the case, tho, not all car brands have requested this yet.

I wonder if this is going to become the norm now for all trademark holders!!!

Could be fun, it will certainly help my SEO sales, but will it eventually pass over to SEO also? I know there has been cases of sites being instructed to remove meta tags, content etc that is trademark protected, but how will they be able to enforce this if a site is offering a review of a trademark protected product!!!

[sem4u]

>I know there has been cases of sites being instructed to remove meta tags, content etc that is trademark protected

Can you give us some examples?

[carlosvandoogle]

cant give the client name but he sells memory foam mattresses on line and he was using the term 'tempur' which is a trademark and was instructed by the trademark holder to remove this from his meta tags/data etc or face prosecution. He was in the top 5 for this term previously.

I was under the impression that there is nothing to stop him from giving his opinion on the said trademark - but i think he overstepped the mark by selling similar but not the actual trademarked product. hence the threat of law!!!

[Trace Johnson]

There is very little a trademark holder can do (except submit a complaint to Google) if you are using their trademark as a keyword. If they do have a term trademarked though I recommend avoiding using it in your ad copy.

[Lucysmith]

I don't have any idea about it

[sirhcrettop]

what's the purpose of putting trademarks in your adwords account? so no one can use it or it will be recognized by others?