Trademarks & Google Adwords
April 17th, 2008 | Published in Misc, Well.ca | 4 Comments
We just started a new Adwords campaign at Well.ca, we’re trying to build in some intelligence and simplify the management of the Adwords. I was looking over our campaign today and noticed a trademark error. See screenshot. Apparently, the word “Platinum” is trademarked.
I did a quick search on the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and found 6 trademarks JUST for the word Platinum. There might be more, the search tools at CIPO are not the greatest. The trademarks were such things as vodka, electric lamps, portable walls, and pet shampoo. I had no idea trademarks worked this way, I have to do some reading tonight.
It is interesting how Google has a very all or nothing approach to the trademarks. This isn’t the first one we’ve had problems with, but all the others are what I thought as valid trademarks (brand name, product name). Now you know why you’ll never see Platinum in a Google Adword.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm (#)
Why does it let you use the trademark “L’Oreal Paris” in the ad?
April 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm (#)
I think it’s because L’Oreal Paris hasn’t filed a complaint with Google about the use of their trademark. If there isn’t a complaint, Google doesn’t do anything about it.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:02 pm (#)
That’s weird. There will be a trademark on almost every common word. I just checked “almost,” “every,” “common” and “word” and there was more than one U.S.-registered trademark for each. You’d never be able to say anything if every trademark was prohibited.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:09 pm (#)
Crazy. I looked at the CIPO FAQ, and came across this:
What other kinds of marks may not be registered?
In general, the following marks may not be registered: words that are clearly descriptive (e.g. “delicious” ice cream), terms that are misleading, words that designate a place of origin (e.g. “Atlantic” cod), terms or symbols that are too similar to an existing trade-mark, and terms and symbols that are expressly prohibited under the Trade-marks Act. These latter include symbols (coats of arms, badges, crests, etc.) of national and international organizations and terms that are considered immoral or offensive. Other types of marks that may not be registered are plant variety denominations and protected geographical indications for wines and spirits.
This makes it seem that almost anything can be trademarked. Still trying to find a good resource for a simple explanation, starting to fear that there is no such thing.
(Disclaimer: not sure about this) I think in most cases trademarks have to be used in certain contexts to cause legal issues. But in Google’s case, it can’t determine the context easily (not with so many ads) so it gets rid of everything.
It might be a huge issue in the future…not just for adwords but everything.