Your Intellectual Property - Abuse Through Online Search Use

Your Intellectual Property - Abuse Through Online Search Use
By Trudy Robinson

So you may have registered your trademark or brand, battled for the correct domain name and registered the appropriate companies. Then, as your online presence grows, you approach online advertising through an organisation such as Google (AdWords). One of the benefits of using Google AdWords is the potential to capture customers at the exact time they are searching for your product or service (unlike traditional advertising where you throw a large net and then hope for the best).

You do, of course, also choose the exact keywords you wish to be shown on the first page of Google. However, you may find this is a far more expensive exercise than it should be. The reason may be that your competitors are using your IP (trademark, product, brand name or slogan) terms as part of their own advertising campaign.

As a result, if a customer searches for your term, your competitor's site is displayed.

Not only are your potential customers being presented with your competitor's sites, your own advertising costs significantly increase because those terms are in demand. Most professional sites should have means of registering and preventing such IP abuse. For example, Google acknowledges trademarked keywords (terms) by allowing you to apply to have those terms removed from AdWords search results.

Of course, firstly you must have the legal right to defend your IP, through the registration of trademarks, patents, companies etc - this is the territory of a trademark solicitor, patent attorney and/or accountant.

Google states... As a courtesy to trademark owners, we have created trademark complaint procedures with respect to use of trademarked terms in Google AdWords campaigns or in domain names participating in our AdSense for Domains program.

You may also want to read Google's Trademark Compliant Procedure. Unfortunately I cannot include this as a link within this article to comply with the host's rules. This page has a Trademark Complaint Form which seems to be available some times, but not others. This form (if you get it on a good day) may also be used to initiate your own IP protection.

For more information, please refer to the Google Trademarks information. Again, I am unable to include the link. If you search for "AdWords Trademark Complaint Procedure " you should find the relevant pages.

You must, of course, ensure your legitimate business associates, affiliates and partner organisations are not crucified when your complaint is actioned. You must ensure you exempt those approved organisations from your complaint so their ads will not be removed.

Google is, apparently, inconsistent in their manner of dealing with trademark infringement across different countries or territories. However, if you don't push, they won't recognise there is an issue and it won't ever change.

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