First, Google is ‘adjusting’ its trade mark policy to allow advertisers to use third party trade marks in their ads, even where they don’t own that trade mark or have approval to use it. This adjustment applies in Canada, the UK and Ireland. It reflects the policy which already applies in the USA. Adverts using the trade mark term in a competitive, critical, or negative way will not be allowed to run nor inter alia will adverts that ‘do not lead to a landing page that clearly facilitates the sale of either the goods and services corresponding to the trademark or parts or components related to the goods and services corresponding to the trademark’.
Secondly, Google has made a policy revision that applies to complaints that it receives regarding use of trademarks as keywords. Keywords that were restricted as a result of a trade mark investigation will no longer be restricted in most European countries. This is the policy that already applied in the UK and Ireland. Advertisers will be able to complain about the selection of their trade mark by a third party if they feel that it leads to a specific ad text which confuses users about the origin of the advertised goods and services. Google will remove the advert after ‘a limited investigation’ but only if it finds that the text of the advert does confuse users as to the origin of the advertised goods and services.
