Les Jones

E-commerce > Google Adwords and Trademark

I've mentioned before that more and more companies are preventing others from buying Google Adwords based on their trademarked name and brands. For instance, say that Ford was bidding on the keyword "chrysler" so that when you searched Google you saw Ford's ad in the "sponsored links" part of Google's search results. Clearly, Chrysler wouldn't like that.

One of the companies we resell contacted Google and told them (under threat of a lawsuit, presumably) that they didn't like their competitors bidding on searches for their trademarked name. Google blocked anyone from bidding on that manufacturer's name, which they kept us from advertising that product for a while despite the fact that we were authorized resellers for that manufacturer. (I discovered a workaround in Google's system, but don't tell them that.)

Another of our manufacturers called today. They're issuing a complaint to Google to stop their competition from bidding on their trademarked name in Google AdWords. The manufacturer needed to know our Google AdWords ID so that Google could provide an exception that would allow us to bid on that keyword. That's good news - it means that Google is honoring trademark holder's rights while allowing authorized resellers and partners to continue their business.

P.S. Your AdWords customer ID is in the upper right corner of every AdWords screen.