6 replies to this topic

[Therese Lane]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the use of another company and/or brand name in PPC ads....

Is it okay to use the company name or brand of a product you sell (but don't own) in a PPC ad for your company?

Thanks!

[Ignoramus]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the use of another company and/or brand name in PPC ads....

Is it okay to use the company name or brand of a product you sell (but don't own) in a PPC ad for your company?

Thanks!

You can answer that for yourself Therese. Just enter the company name/brand in Google/YSM/MSN etc and see how many PPC ads come up. Or try BMW cars or Nike shoes.

Providing you are a legitimate reseller there's no problem at all.

Where you can get into trouble is if you misrepresent the brand. For example, if you use 'Rolex Watches' in an ad that takes you to a site selling fake Rolex's or doesn't sell Rolex's at all.

Google's policy is to put the responsibility on the advertiser not to abuse trademarks in their ads. If they do, the trademark owner can complain to them and maybe get the ads removed but as far as Google is concerned, any wrongdoing is between the trademark owner and the infringer.

[Therese Lane]

Right on. I had checked out other PPC ads saw that people were using company names/brands in their ads, but I wanted to post it here to make sure it was okay and to get some additional feedback. Thanks so much for clarifying this for me (okay to use name, not okay to pose as or misrepresent the brand and/or company themselves).

[Alan Perkins]

okay to use name

Sometimes it's not OK to use the name, either as a keyword or within the creative or both. It depends whether the trademark holder has requested that Google prevent use/abuse* (*delete according to your perspective) of their trademark and on your target location.

It may be easier to view this from the trademark holder's perspective. Suppose you had a trademark (such as your company name) that you wanted to protect in some way. Now read the Google Adwords Trademark Policy and the pages that it links to (inside US/Canada, outside US/Canada, Adsense for Domains).

[adybee]

Can be a problem if you are bidding on company or brand names for affiliates (arbitrage) - many affiliate programmes strictly prohibit bidding on their brand names

[Blue Acorn]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the use of another company and/or brand name in PPC ads....

Is it okay to use the company name or brand of a product you sell (but don't own) in a PPC ad for your company?

Thanks!

We have a client that sells licensed products - so the brand name is very important. They've been running PPC ads (and so has their competitors) on those terms for years without problems. And like Ignoramus stated, if other people are already doing it (and they're legitimate resellers) then you should be in the clear.

Just stay away from using trademarked brand names in your domain - that's one thing they WILL go after you for.

[Alan Perkins]

if other people are already doing it (and they're legitimate resellers) then you should be in the clear

That's not true in all circumstances.

A couple of examples:

• once a trademark owner files a complaint, it can take weeks before you see the effects filter through into existing ads, but you have no chance of creating new ads that clash with that trademark
• some resellers are more "legitimate" than others, i.e. enjoy preferred seller status. The pecking order may go something like {partner, franchisee, reseller, dealer}, so again seeing lots of other sellers doesn't mean that you will be OK, even if you are legitimate.