When someone uses your trademark in their Google Ads campaigns, many adverse effects such as decreased click-through rate (CTR) and increased cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads as well as poor customer experience for your customers. It is also doesn’t feel good to see a competitor in the top spot on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) using your Trademarks as a business owner or individual.
This article tells how to secure your trademark Google ad words. Before we look in more detail at how to protect our trademarks, let’s understand what Google Ad words are and its basic principles. How can you secure your trademark Google ad words?
What are Google Ad words?
Google Ad Words or also called as Google Ads is Google’s advertising system in which advertisers bid on specific keywords for their clickable ads to show in search results. This is how Google makes money from search since advertisers have to pay for these clicks. This infographic will assist you to know the mechanism of Google, describing the Google Ads auction, bidding method, and revealing major factors like Quality Score and cost-per-click.
Basic Principles of Google Ad words
In a nutshell, you choose some keywords that a searcher may use on Google then create an advert that will appear on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) based on those keywords. Of course, you’re probably not going to be the only organization wanting to serve adverts to potential customers who use those particular words. Competitors can bid for the same search word or term.
If you want your ad to appear at all then you have to bid against other marketers on how much you’re willing to pay Google Ads every time a searcher clicks on your ad. More likely your ad will appear in the search results when you pay more per click. That is why paid search is often referred to as PPC which stands for Pay-Per-Click).
However, unlike other real-time bidding structures, it’s not just the highest bid that is considered into account. To determine how high your ad shows up the SERP and whether it’s shown at all Google will assign it to a term called an ‘Ad Rank’.
Can Anyone Use My Trademark in Their Ad Copy?
The answer to this question is it depends because there are regional differences. Many of our clients assume that only they can practice their trademark in the ad text. The truth is that Google provides resellers and informational sites to use the trademark under particular conditions and in some geographies.
For ads targeting the United States, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom the following are allowed:
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Resellers:-
They can use a trademark in the ad copy as long as the ad’s landing page is mainly dedicated to selling products or services corresponding to the trademark. The page must facilitate the sale of the product and provide information such as the price for the product or service.
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Informational sites:-
They can use trademarks in the ad copy if the primary purpose of the ad’s landing page is to provide informative details about goods or services corresponding to the trademark.
However, the following are not allowed under the reseller and informational site policy:
- Ads referring to the trademark for competitive objectives
- Even, ads with landing pages that needed users to provide extensive information before displaying commercial information.
- Ads that are unclear as to whether the advertiser is an informational site or reseller.
Google also allows channel partners, advertising partners, and affiliates to use trademarks in the ad copy. If you have agreements in place with your partners that only support your trademark to be practiced under particular conditions then the responsibility falls on you and not on Google to follow and contact the partner immediately if they are not adhering to those contracts.
For ads targeting the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) regions, the rules are stricter and are focused on reducing consumer confusion around the origin of the advertised products and services. Google investigates, confirms, and deny the ads where a blend of keyword and ad featuring a trademark is confusing.
The following are the ads targeting the EU and EFTA regions may use the trademark as a keyword. Google specifies on their Advertising Policies Help page that the below ads are meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive.
- Ads using a term generically or descriptively instead of about the trademark.
- Also, Ads for competing products or services.
- Ads regarding the sale of products or services, compatible products or services, replacement parts, corresponding to the trademark.
- Ads for sites that show informative details about services and products, corresponding to the trademark.
- Also, Ads referring to the trademark to provide additional information about the advertised products or services (for certain ad extensions and formats only)
Protect your Trademark Google Ad Words Adverts
Now we know that we can prevent other companies from using our trademarks but only in adverts. How can I file a complaint with Google?
Before filing a complaint and putting a claim in, you should confirm that your trademark is registered in the country where the advert is showing, you can file a complaint about adverts that appear in Spain if you have registered your trademark in Spain, but not in Argentina.
However, if you have yet to register your trademark in the countries where other companies then register it or you can take professional help to get it registered. Once this is done, you just require to wait for a response from Google which can take a while. Remember that they have a low tolerance policy for misuse of this tool. Ensure that other companies are using your trademark and that it’s registered.
Does My Trademark Have to be Registered?
Google will accept claims for rights of exclusive use for well-established brands that have not yet been registered. This doesn’t mean that registering a trademark is not essential. As their Ad Words policy outlines that the intellectual property rights are territorial, and so claims are only verified and investigated where an “active” right exists for a trademark. User rights only exist in Anglo-Saxon countries whose legal systems come from the common law (US, UK, Australia, etc.).
For other countries, we can assume that an “active’ right, as they are known only exists if there is a record of the trademark.
If you are also preparing a Trademark, don’t worry as we are here to give you full help on all elements of trademarks. Visit our website Trademark Cart or give us a call on +91 8750008585, and our Trademark specialists will conduct you most possibly.
We give Trademark Registration in India and various other counties like the USA, UK, America many more services like copyright or patent
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