Spinfield: Web marketing trends today, tomorrow, and beyond…

Have you ever searched for your company’s name in Google and a competitor shows up in the sponsored search results?

I have - and they do. Grrr. You work for years to create your brand and in 0.24 seconds (according to Google) it’s mixed up with a dozen other sponsored search results with people profiting off your success.

But “Hey, they can’t do that! My company name is trademarked!”

Well, according to Google, it all depends on what the competitor is claiming in the ad. If they are simply using your name or product as a search trigger (keyword) and not claiming to be you - that’s legal. If there is any type of deception or if they are using your name in their ad text - that is illegal.

Google has provided a form to file a trademark complaint if your competitor is in fact bidding on your name illegally. Google doesn’t promise to do anything but “perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints.”

Google makes it very clear it will not disable a keyword in response to a complaint. The trademarked term must be in the ad. They may have a bunch of lawyers on staff, but they aren’t going to do your dirty work for free. Google suggests you contact the offending advertiser directly. Good luck with that! Your legal bills will be more than the loss of business caused by this departure from what is ethically correct.

Wondering if this strategy will change? On May 5, 2008 Google changed its trademark policy in the UK to match the US policy.

I do find it curious though - no trademark owners the likes of Sears, eBay, LLBean, GOOGLE - have any competitors bidding on their names….What are your thoughts?

Copyright © 2008 by IdeaStar. All rights reserved.