Will we still be allowed to bid on trademarks in Google?

phil — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:47:17 +0000

Bidding on trademarks in Google Adwords is a great way for small businesses and affiliates to run profitable campaigns. A ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will decide whether Trademarks are still allowed to be used as keywords whilst running Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.

This could hit small businesses and affiliates revenues very hard as some of their campaigns rely heavily on trademarked terms. These terms also tend to have the higher conversion rates within the campaigns. Both parties have valid arguments for and against trademark bidding.

PPC advertising is when an advertiser can bid on keywords and be displayed in Google’s search results and also partner sites. An advertiser then pays when a searcher clicks on their ad. As you can imagine bidding on trademark terms can have a lot of value for competitors and affiliates and some companies claim it is illegal and infringes on their trademark.

This seems to be a either embraced or hated by companies and individuals. One side you can take advantage of trademarks and compete in the same area for marketing space. On the other side you have the companies that feel they have to compete for their own trademark. Google has said that consumers are not confused when they see a variety of ads displayed.

Louis Vuitton and the owners of the eurochallenges brand are the ones bringing the case to the ECJ claiming that their trademark rights are infringed when businesses use their names as keywords in PPC campaigns. An advisor to the ECJ has already said in his opinion that the service from Google does not infringe on trademarks and is legal.

Entrepreneurs and small businesses from the UK are hoping that Google will win the case and they will still be able to use trademarks in their PPC campaigns as this could hit their campaigns hard and decrease their revenue if they do not win.. The ruling is expected to conclude sometime next month.