On August 4th 2010 Google announced the relaxation of its trademarking policy in Europe following a series of recent judgements by the European Court of Justice addressing the issue of the use of trademarks in its AdWords advertising system. This move will bring Europe much more inline with rules and regulations surrounding trademarking in the U.S.A.

From the 14th September 2010, Google will allow advertisers on its AdWords platform to purchase one trader's trademark as a keyword to trigger advertisements for competitors across all countries in Europe.

The issue this presents is for brand owners. Brand owners will have to become extremely eagle-eyed in monitoring their competitors keyword usage and need to ensure that they have registered their brands as fully as possible to give them the best scope of protection if enforcement actions ever went through the courts or via Google.

Google has introduced a 'takedown procedure' where brand owners can report what they believe to be 'infringement' of their trademarks - or in their own words "Advertisers will be able to complain about the selection of their trademark by a third party if they feel it leads to a specific ad test which confuses users about the origin of the advertised goods and services. Google will then conduct a limited investigation and if we find that the ad text does confuse users as to the origin of the advertised goods and services, we will remove the ad"

The problem I have with this is the distinction of what constitutes 'confusing' - there needs to be a clear line - and to be honest, there isn't one. The plus is really for resellers here, now able to use their trademarks to generate interest, but is this going to cause masses of confusion to end users? Are Google going to be saturated with complaints? Realistically though, we can make 4 assumptions from what we do know:

1 - Never suggest a connection with a brand owner in the advertisement or the linked website

2 - The website that is linked to the advert, should make it vert cloear who is the owner of the site concerned

3 - Never use the brand owner's trademark visibly in the advert triggered by a specific keyword

4 - Finally and most importantly, never cause any confusion as to the origin of the goods or services sold on your website.

Is this really a great move from Google? Or is it going to cause them more grief than good? Not too sure, but maybe the upcoming Interflora Vs. Marks and Sparks case can open our eyes to a few things.

Posted: 08/08/10 09:46