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Casual Articles - Trademark Infringement Issues For Pay-per-Click (PPC) Advertisers
Why should you care about my viewpoints?Good question - you don't know me - but obviously - You're confused and maybe even a bit fed up by your new assignment and it's lack of clarity...Typical problem!My specialty: Getting what I call "sorry ass - stranded in the ditch - projects up'n running FAST!And by fast, I mean just that...Fast, or instant - in like 90 days or less... And in 6 to 7 months or less, depending on size and shape - So God-Damned Blod Trimmed - So tuned up - you wouldn't even recognize it...When my collegues couldn't make it - I usually was sent in to clean up the mess... To do the 'dirty work' - And I did. - PERIOD.When dealing with a project. My main goal isALWAYS RESULTS.I may be tough, and sometimes you'll have to be too...Because you see... Sometimes...Management claim they want this and that change... ..And sadly enough too... sometimes...When you start giving it to them - they start sabotaging youAnd unless you're pretty aware of that when that starts happening - and unless you take measu
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on t
I see article marketing and Google Adwords at the opposite ends of a spectrum that contains many elements that impact the effectiveness of your marketing.What are some of the differences?Article marketing creates a very high quality visitor or subscriber, because the visitor or subscriber has already been exposed to you and your style before they visit your web site or opt in to your list.Google Adwords, on the other hand, creates a much lower quality subscriber, almost by default. What do I mean, default? You see, with Google Adwords, the visitor has only a few seconds to make a decision about whether to click the link. So they make an impulsive decision. They click just to see what you have. And whether they need it or not it just cost you 50 cents or a dollar or whatever. But with article marketing, there is no cost involved in losing the person who doesn’t like what you offer.Article marketing is slow to get going. You write a few articles, and get a few visitors or subscribers. Some days your article gets picked up by a publisher, and other days it does not. So your visitors
Could this be a trend of things to come from the other major search players?
MSN’s new adCenter (still in beta) states you are not allowed to infringe trademarks within their editorial guidelines (see policy below).
However, Google still maintains a strong stance in allowing advertisers to bid on trademarked search terms as long as the trademarked term is not used within the advertiser’s ad-copy.
Numbers to Consider
Next to click fraud, trademark violations are the second largest concern to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. Out of the total number of searches online, 20% are trademark searches. Meaning, company owned trademarks such as “Pontiac”, account for 20% of all search traffic. While 1 in 5 searches for trademark terms may seem high, most conversions do not originate from trademarked terms. A study by comScore and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) found most buyers do not search by manufacturer or product name. Rather, buyers use broad search terms that do not include a manufacturer’s name. Broad search terms account for 70% of total searches and 60% of total conversions.
Search Engine’s Policy on PPC Trademark Bidding
Yahoo on Trademarks:
"On March 1, 2006, Yahoo! Search Marketing will modify its editorial guidelines regarding the use of keywords containing trademarks. Previously, we allowed competitive advertising by allowing advertisers to bid on third-party trademarks if those advertisers offered detailed comparative information about the trademark owners' products or services in comparison to the competitive products and services that were offered or promoted on the advertisers' site.
In order to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on terms that are trademarks, Yahoo! Search Marketing has determined that we will no longer allow bidding on keywords containing competitor trademarks."
MSN AdCenter on Trademarks
“Microsoft requires all advertisers to agree that they will not bid on keywords, or use in the text of their advertisements, any word whose use would infringe the trademark of any third party or would otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party”.
Google Adwords on Trademarks:
“Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we're happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.”
Solution or More Problems
With all Engines moving toward a TM standard, it would have many benefits to both advertisers and searchers. This standard would be good for marketers who would have to be more creative in their copy creation creating increased demand for qualified marketers which would translate into higher fees. Search Engines hosting the ads would maintain revenue levels, but online public relations firms may lose as they would not be required to police search engines for their clients with trademarks. Lastly, the mark owner would continue to be protected and user experience would not be affected.
Case Study:
I’m currently working with an AdWords client in a circumstance where their competitors are bidding on their trademarked search terms. Aside from the constant policing and reporting for trademark violations used in the ads themselves, adspend to secure top positions for their ads has skyrocketed from an initial $2.00 per click to $15.00 per click. Additionally, monthly spend has increased from $1,200 to nearly $30,000.
I have to go back to my client with an estimated budget of $500,000 for the rest of this year to control the space for their own branded trademarked term. I am reluctant to do that as it doesn’t make sense with the announcement from Yahoo on their new trademark policy. Given the level of aggression by the competitors and the extortionate cost now been borne by my client there is only one solution and that is to stop all advertisers from bidding on the terms. In my opinion, it is simply not right that a business owner has to spend $500,000+ to buy their own branded term that has already cost them millions of dollars to build. This is $500,000+ in revenue for Google which is being generated by a policy that is beyond elementary business terms. Yahoo and MSN have recognized the injustice of this policy and have taken steps to change it.
If we cannot treat this policy on a case by case basis, then I have no alternative than to advise my client that we cannot help them any further and their only option is to resort to legal action against Google.
Google also advises that you take the matter up with individual advertisers which in many cases are impossible with private registrations and foreign companies. You could add to your high costs dramatically to have to send cease desists to all infringers. Many will ignore you.
The classic bait and switch does not seem to apply to the Internet. Many companies are okay with their terms being bought for comparison shopping and by re-sellers. The solution here is for those companies to give permission to Google to allow their re-sellers to purchase the name. With the strength and sophistication of Google’s technology how difficult can this be? I doubt it is any more cumbersome than filtering search results for China.
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on th
If you're looking for a Bell helicopter for sale then you are sure to find a wide range available. Unlike companies like a Robinson, Bell helicopters cover a wide range of different styles of helicopter from the iconic bell 47 to the Turbine engine Bell 407 there is something for everyone. Looking for a bell 47 helicopter for sale can be a very hard task as there are so many models available. The first models were rolled out in the late 1940s so as you can imagine whether you are an enthusiast, an aviation history buff, or a newly qualified pilot there will be a Bell 47 for you.Many people's first memory of the bell 47 was in the TV series M*A*S*H where the Bell 47 featured strongly. Due to this iconic status even old 47's can sell for up to $100,000. For day-to-day personal use the 47 is probably not the ideal helicopter but if you are an enthusiast then you won't find a better helicopter to spend your time with.The turbine engine bell 407 is the long awaited replacement for the Long Ranger and the Jet Ranger with much larger Windows and a larger cockpit it makes for a much more comfortable helico
In order to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on terms that are trademarks, Yahoo! Search Marketing has determined that we will no longer allow bidding on keywords containing competitor trademarks."
MSN AdCenter on Trademarks
“Microsoft requires all advertisers to agree that they will not bid on keywords, or use in the text of their advertisements, any word whose use would infringe the trademark of any third party or would otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party”.
Google Adwords on Trademarks:
“Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we're happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.”
Solution or More Problems
With all Engines moving toward a TM standard, it would have many benefits to both advertisers and searchers. This standard would be good for marketers who would have to be more creative in their copy creation creating increased demand for qualified marketers which would translate into higher fees. Search Engines hosting the ads would maintain revenue levels, but online public relations firms may lose as they would not be required to police search engines for their clients with trademarks. Lastly, the mark owner would continue to be protected and user experience would not be affected.
Case Study:
I’m currently working with an AdWords client in a circumstance where their competitors are bidding on their trademarked search terms. Aside from the constant policing and reporting for trademark violations used in the ads themselves, adspend to secure top positions for their ads has skyrocketed from an initial $2.00 per click to $15.00 per click. Additionally, monthly spend has increased from $1,200 to nearly $30,000.
I have to go back to my client with an estimated budget of $500,000 for the rest of this year to control the space for their own branded trademarked term. I am reluctant to do that as it doesn’t make sense with the announcement from Yahoo on their new trademark policy. Given the level of aggression by the competitors and the extortionate cost now been borne by my client there is only one solution and that is to stop all advertisers from bidding on the terms. In my opinion, it is simply not right that a business owner has to spend $500,000+ to buy their own branded term that has already cost them millions of dollars to build. This is $500,000+ in revenue for Google which is being generated by a policy that is beyond elementary business terms. Yahoo and MSN have recognized the injustice of this policy and have taken steps to change it.
If we cannot treat this policy on a case by case basis, then I have no alternative than to advise my client that we cannot help them any further and their only option is to resort to legal action against Google.
Google also advises that you take the matter up with individual advertisers which in many cases are impossible with private registrations and foreign companies. You could add to your high costs dramatically to have to send cease desists to all infringers. Many will ignore you.
The classic bait and switch does not seem to apply to the Internet. Many companies are okay with their terms being bought for comparison shopping and by re-sellers. The solution here is for those companies to give permission to Google to allow their re-sellers to purchase the name. With the strength and sophistication of Google’s technology how difficult can this be? I doubt it is any more cumbersome than filtering search results for China.
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on t
While planning your website promotion budget, consider entrusting site promotion to an offshore SEO. Why?First off, you don’t have to share your data. Offshore SEOs are given facts and area to work in. They start link building and PR gaining, produce their own content and further promote your site.Then, as promotion is a very long process (Page Rank update is oh-so-long), you only have to pay once, no pay-per-day or something. Plus, you take some load off your shoulders by minimizing management activities in this sphere. The process is being carried out, don’t worry.One more thing is that management of their work can be carried out simultaneously with other activities. Checking pages and text is easy and requires almost no QA, analysis or testing. The easiest way to check the competence of your offshore SEO is just to type in your keywords into Google (Yahoo, MSN, Ask) searchbox. If you see your website on the first position of the first results page, or if your website is closer to the top than it was a week ago, you must be sure – your SEO does perform well!It’s low-risky. Offshore deve
Solution or More Problems
With all Engines moving toward a TM standard, it would have many benefits to both advertisers and searchers. This standard would be good for marketers who would have to be more creative in their copy creation creating increased demand for qualified marketers which would translate into higher fees. Search Engines hosting the ads would maintain revenue levels, but online public relations firms may lose as they would not be required to police search engines for their clients with trademarks. Lastly, the mark owner would continue to be protected and user experience would not be affected.
Case Study:
I’m currently working with an AdWords client in a circumstance where their competitors are bidding on their trademarked search terms. Aside from the constant policing and reporting for trademark violations used in the ads themselves, adspend to secure top positions for their ads has skyrocketed from an initial $2.00 per click to $15.00 per click. Additionally, monthly spend has increased from $1,200 to nearly $30,000.
I have to go back to my client with an estimated budget of $500,000 for the rest of this year to control the space for their own branded trademarked term. I am reluctant to do that as it doesn’t make sense with the announcement from Yahoo on their new trademark policy. Given the level of aggression by the competitors and the extortionate cost now been borne by my client there is only one solution and that is to stop all advertisers from bidding on the terms. In my opinion, it is simply not right that a business owner has to spend $500,000+ to buy their own branded term that has already cost them millions of dollars to build. This is $500,000+ in revenue for Google which is being generated by a policy that is beyond elementary business terms. Yahoo and MSN have recognized the injustice of this policy and have taken steps to change it.
If we cannot treat this policy on a case by case basis, then I have no alternative than to advise my client that we cannot help them any further and their only option is to resort to legal action against Google.
Google also advises that you take the matter up with individual advertisers which in many cases are impossible with private registrations and foreign companies. You could add to your high costs dramatically to have to send cease desists to all infringers. Many will ignore you.
The classic bait and switch does not seem to apply to the Internet. Many companies are okay with their terms being bought for comparison shopping and by re-sellers. The solution here is for those companies to give permission to Google to allow their re-sellers to purchase the name. With the strength and sophistication of Google’s technology how difficult can this be? I doubt it is any more cumbersome than filtering search results for China.
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on t
As an search engine optimizer we must know that is is very important to promote certain products over the web, and stay active with quite of a few people, so we are successful with our careers, and one thing about seo remember its about conversions, and not ranking.Ranking is a great thing to have, but then again you can be getting 20k hits a day, and only sale 100 widgets, or would you like to get 1k hits a day, and sell 500 widgets well if so then you got your conversion mind set in the right direction.Conversions is just a simple saying that is referred to how many sales you get per visit, and any one thats into marketing pretty heavily on the Internet has a good idea what this is, I was recently talking with john Scott owner of v7n, which john is a very popular Internet marketing expert, and he really got me thinking about this one.Some ways of improving your conversions, well I would have to say there is many ways of improving conversions just try numerous things on your website, learn different marketing strategies that will make your product sell, and promote its self, you don't want to t
If we cannot treat this policy on a case by case basis, then I have no alternative than to advise my client that we cannot help them any further and their only option is to resort to legal action against Google.
Google also advises that you take the matter up with individual advertisers which in many cases are impossible with private registrations and foreign companies. You could add to your high costs dramatically to have to send cease desists to all infringers. Many will ignore you.
The classic bait and switch does not seem to apply to the Internet. Many companies are okay with their terms being bought for comparison shopping and by re-sellers. The solution here is for those companies to give permission to Google to allow their re-sellers to purchase the name. With the strength and sophistication of Google’s technology how difficult can this be? I doubt it is any more cumbersome than filtering search results for China.
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on t
By interviewing potential employees, you have an opportunity to determine whether or not the job candidates who have applied are a good fit for your company. Because the interview process is so important, you will want to make sure that you handle it properly. Here are 5 tips on conducting a job interview.Prepare for the Interviewing SessionWhen interviewing potential employees, you will want to make sure that you choose a private setting free of distractions. You will also want to prepare a list of questions to ask during the interview.Ask Open Ended Interview QuestionsOpen ended questions are questions that require more than a yes/no answer. By asking open ended questions during the interview, you can get potential employees to spill their guts and tell you everything you need to know.Ask the Right Interview QuestionsWhen developing interview questions, you should determine exactly what sort of employee you are looking for. This will help you to create questions that are tailored to the needs of your organization.Explain the Positionthe name. With the strength and sophistication of Google’s technology how difficult can this be? I doubt it is any more cumbersome than filtering search results for China.
Your Defense Against Trademark Violations
Website companies where the majority of their revenue is generated through online sales depend heavily on search engines to generate traffic to their website. In order to defend against trademark infringements you will need to conduct search audits at least once every month. You not only need to look over organic search results, but also paid search results or PPC contextual ads. You should look through the top 30 results of the search listings.
For organic search engine results you should look at both the questionable result and the site displayed in the result. When looking over the possible violator’s site, don’t just look over the visible content on the site; look over the code as well to uncover hidden text, image alt tags and keyword meta tags that may include your trademarked names.
Then document your findings. For search engine results and PPC results use a “screen capture” of the page displaying the mark infringement. For mark infringements that are visible on a website, save the entire page’s code as a .txt file.
What about if you are you seeing an infringement in organic search results, but when you click on the page, there is no infringement? They may be using a cloaked page which includes your trademark. To check this out you will need to view the search engine’s cached page on file. Make sure to save a copy of this code as well.
You will need to document your findings properly by dating the violation as well as the site owner’s complete contact information. Use http://www.dnsstuff.com to get the whois information for the site. Once you have all of this documented you will need to send your findings to the appropriate search engine.
You may also want to take the legal route, in which case you should keep a record of all your documentation to present to your legal counsel.
The best way to gather evidence is to hire a third party to collect evidence against the infringer of your trademark or copyrighted material. Recently at Search Engine Strategies in New York City during February of 2006, Deborah Wilcox, Partner of Baker & Hostetler LLP who specializes in trademark and copyright areas of law said, “Use a third party to make print outs and audit the search results. If the case goes to court you will need hard evidence for the judge.”
Contact the Search Engines
You can also contact the search engines directly if you believe an advertiser is infringing on your trademark. The respective search engine contact information is below.
Google
Google Inc.
Attn: Google AdWords, Trademark Complaints
2400 Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Formerly: Overture Services, Inc.
Attn: Business & Legal Affairs - Trademarks
74 N. Pasadena Ave., 3rd Floor
Pasadena, California 91103
Fax: 626 685-5601
Microsoft Corporation
Attn: MSN Search Trademark Concerns
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
USA
Trademark Infringement Resources
International Trademark Association www.inta.org
American Patent & Trademark Law Center www.patentpending.com
Internet patent, copyright, trademark, and legal issues www.bitlaw.com
Trademarks on the Internet www.bitlaw.com/trademark/internet.html
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