UK businesses allowed to use trademark terms in AdWords

Google has amended its AdWords policy for UK businesses

Google is updating its AdWords policy in the UK and Ireland to allow certain advertisers to use third-party trademark brand names and words in their advertisements displayed via Google’s AdWords service.

This will allow IT resellers, sellers of replacement technology parts and informational sites, for example, to use trademark terms such as Microsoft or IBM in their advertising text online, even if they don't own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.

The ruling may dismay brand-owning companies such as luxury goods label Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). The company was defeated in the EU courts in March following a legal action it raised against the ad function. Its concerns were that sites selling counterfeit products could use trademarks as keywords.

Google already operates this policy in the US and it will be extended to Canada, the UK and Ireland on September 14.

“We believe that this has helped our users and advertisers by improving the usefulness of text ads on Google.com and across partner sites in the US,” said Dan Stokeley, AdWords product manager in Google’s Inside AdWords blog.

“For example, resellers of jeans have been able to highlight the actual brands they sell in their ad text making them more specific and relevant for users.”

The company has released a list of FAQs for advertisers outlining the policy guidelines.

Google will also allow advertisers elsewhere in the EU to select trademarks as keywords [search terms] but unlike in the US, UK, Ireland and Canada, they will not be allowed to put them in the body of the advertising text.

The changes to EU legislation will also be made on September 14 and the company revealed it currently has no plans to bring its EU policy into line with the UK and the US.

“Based on business and legal considerations, we have decided that such a change is consistent with the law in the UK and Ireland and follows a similar change we made in the US last year. We have no plans to introduce this to other countries at present,” said a Google spokesperson.