If you're buying trademark search terms, you better know the rules

Google and Yahoo’s trademark policy differ slightly.

Google allows companies to buy competitor’s trademark terms but does not allow them to use the trademark in their ad copy. Yahoo takes a stricter approach and disapproves of both.

Google was first to prevent competitors from using trademarks in ad copy. You may recall a high profile case in 2003 where American Blinds and Wallpaper sued Google for selling trademark keywords. After I believe four years of litigation, the suit was dropped. Google has been sued in Europe and lost.

Seeing the heat that Google was taking, Yahoo modified their policy in 2006. Previously Yahoo allowed competitors to buy trademarked keywords if there was sufficient content on the landing page comparing the products/services. Yahoo now prevents competitors from buying trademark terms and using the trademark in the copy.

I’ve had a competitor buy my client’s company name, and I subsequently filed a trademark complaint with Yahoo. Yahoo was responsive in disabling the ad. At the end of the day, buying competitor’s trademark terms is unethical. It misleads searchers who expect to land on the page they searched for. And it undermines the search engines because their search results become less relevant.

The conspiracy theorist in me questions why it took Google and Yahoo so long to change their policy. Perhaps they saw advertising dollars left on the table from brand advertisers not buying search because they’re concerned about trademark infringement.