The holiday season is among us and if you haven’t started shopping for presents you probably soon will be. Marketers know this of course and they have their Holiday Marketing plans and budgets ready and rolling out slowly, but will that budget be enough?
In May 2009, Google changed its policy toward trademark usage in AdWords ads. Previously, Google had not allowed advertisers to use trademarks they didn’t own, either for targeting or in ad text, and Google was responsible for policing that policy. Under the new trademark policy, advertisers can use trademarks they don’t own under certain circumstances, such as if they are reselling a product or discussing the product on an informational site.
Search for branded terms naturally go up in the holiday season and Google’s self-policing new policy means that spammers and fraudulent sites who have larger budgets than the average affiliates will have more opportunity to buy branded terms, increasing the CPC and overtake brand terms from affiliates and even brand owners. Also if they are selling knock off products, they will have a higher ROI as the markup on the products ain’t so high.
Some think Google are being greedy in profit terms and that they are taking advantage of the season and the people’s need. What do you think?
You can read more on the issue and Google’s policy at http://www.clickz.com/
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Google is a bigger threat to the U.S Trademark process than it is to the Registrants.
If the U.S trademark office continues to allow Google and other search engines the rights to diminish the status and value of the U.S Trademark on the internet, the registration process will soon become useless.
What is the purpose of Registering a U.S Trademark if it has no status, value or protection on the most used commerce medium in the world?