Hi

I really hope someone can explain this to me. I just DO NOT understand how this whole keyword thing works. I am IT manager at a firm of trade mark attorneys. Basically, the situation has arisen several times over the last few weeks where a) we have clients who want to register certain phrases as trade marks so that they can then bid on these as keywords and stop other people using them; and b) we also have one situation where an individual is bidding on the two separate words which make up a client's trade mark and a Google search for the client's trade mark ALWAYS brings up the competitor's site ahead of our clients and she wants us to stop it!

I do not even know if this is Adwords to be honest. Clients just say that they want phrases trade marked so they can bid on them and no one else can. We feel that even if we trade mark these phrases as in situation a) above there is nothing to stop other people getting around this by simply using the method in situation b) above. But clients seem to think that there is. We cannot advise on this because we just don't know enough about it!

The poor old attorneys here have a hard enough time working out how to send an email so I am being asked a lot of questions about this and frankly even after using the help pages on Google I am still not one bit the wiser.

Can someone PLEASE very simply explain what on earth this is all about? What is meant by "bidding" on phrases? How does this work?! What is the trade mark situation here? Is this a Google advertising scheme - and if so, which one?!

Any resources/explanations most gratefully received!!!

Searching in google help just now I think I have found what you are looking for in regards to a trademark violation.

Go to : http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ and click on the “Trademark Policy” link under section 1. b.

It is a 7 minute audio file that will explain how to issue a trademark complaint.


I would also recommend listening to the audio file under section 1. a. “What is google adwords“, that will explain google adwords far better than I can.

My take, If the problem is indeed a trademark issue with adwords google may be able to help you. But, if the problem is with the normal search results then you have to take that up with the website and not google.

I would suggest listening to those audio files and contact google to see what your options are.

There is indeed a trademark policy in place with Google Adwords. Basically, when people submits ads, they are automatically reviewed (although a manual review can be requested) to see if they comply - i.e. whether or not they contain a trademark. If they do, they're not allowed.

I have no idea how you go about submitting your TM as a trademark, though. I'd assume you'd first have to TM it, and then submit it to Google.

Hope this helps

Thanks for that guys - have checked out the help section suggested and am a little clearer on the basics now! Should enable us to give some advice, anyway!