Do Two Wrongs Make A Right?
We've all had it happen to us at one point or another. We do a search on our respective trademarked names and in the "sponsored listings" area we see ads for our competitors pop up. Depending on the power of your brand, this can range from mildly irritating to a significant loss of business. The question though is how to deal with this situation.
As we all know, when it comes to keyword bidding, Google does not police what terms you bid on. As long as the trademarked term isn't in the ad itself, Google has no problems with displaying the ad. Google feels that if the ad is not related to the search, their quality based bidding formula will eventually filter out these ads and the problem will take care of itself. In Google's defense, if they did police this issue, it would open up a pandora's box that they could never close. But even as I write this post, I have found that the competition is once again displaying their ads on our name.
In dealing with this aggressive behavior, there are typically two schools of thought. Either you retaliate or you turn the other cheek. When this issue comes up for us, we will typically take the high road. We email the owner of the site and ask them to take the ad down reminding them that as a courtesy, we do not advertise on their brand or trademark. More often than not, this is all that is necessary.
As marketing professionals and small business owners, how do you handle this situation? Do you go on the offensive or try to resolve the issue through détente?
6 Comments
Leslie E West says:
I remember attending a Yahoo conference, when I first launched my site, and asking a question about this very subject. The overwhelming consensus was do it! I was unsure and it seemed a bit sneaky, but at the same time that's capitalism. And what do you do when your competitor uses (your) product descriptions as their company name. If my competitor's name is "Quality Hamburgers" does that mean I shouldn't use the word "quality" or "hamburgers" in ads for my burger joint?
Leslie, www.bluedotpaperershop.com
Michael A. Cox says:
The aggressiveness with which you can attack this issue is dependant on the solidity of the ground on which you stand when it comes to your rights to names and words.
If, as it happens and is happening to a client of mine at the moment, the rip-off artist is actually using your registered mark or name, you have every right to request they to cease and desist. We do it with a businesslike letter -- registered snail mail -- which doesn't accuse them of anything, rather it simply points out that there is an issue that needs attention. If the polite request is ignored, as often it is, there are plenty of llittle steps that can be taken, short of filing a suit. I'm not a trademark lawyer, so I won't offer advice here, but a visit to http://www.uspto.gov/ can provide some information about your rights as a trademark holder.
One thing I can tell you is that if you haven't trademarked your name and slogan or tagline, do it now. You can do it online and it is not expensive (less than $300 per mark).
Beyond that, generic words in the Google ads system are fair game.
cabz says:
I agree with Michael. If your trademarks are being used in ads, you should certainly go on the offensive, which for me means filing a request with the network on with the offense is taking place and contacting the offending party with an email or letter. If the terms aren't trademarked, I would still suggest that you attempt to contact the company in question as that has still been succesful for us in such instances (most people are willing to listen and remove the ads out of courtesy - some won't be, but it's likely worth your time to give it a shot).
If it doesn't fit under the trademark scenario, putting up your own ads for the terms in question is another potential reaction you should consider. Ads for branded terms and keywords that competitors will typically go after can be extremely cheap. Knocking their ads further down the page and/or increasing the cost per click will discourage many offenders. Make it clear in your ad that you're the official site/reseller/etc. and squeeze them out as best you can.
babyworld says:
Dear Michael A. Cox
Their are many legal companies online that will do the trademark thing. Which online company or companies do you reccomend.
Looking for to yours or anyone's reply.
Jamie Estep says:
We've had problems in the past with Yahoo optimizing a PPC account (Don't ever let them do this!), and ending up with five or six cease-and-desists ourselves in a week, because Yahoo made 20 or 30 blatant infringing ads. Another thing to consider is dynamic keyword ads will often create an infringement situation without the ad's owner ever knowing or intending to do it.
Either way, especially in the case of small businesses, site owners will usually correct the situation without anyone needing to involve lawyers or even a legal cease and desist. We've had the best luck emailing or calling the site owner and informing them of the situation. So much easier and cheaper to politely ask the site owner to correct the ads. If they don't then fire away.
Lorraine Pierce says:
The timing of your articles is impeccable! After my first fraudulent order, you did an article on internet fraud. A few weeks ago I found a blog site using my product/site name and slogan. When clicked Norton popped up as having blocked a malicious virus. The owner of the site, which I looked up on the WHOis database, had done a private registration. But the hosting company is not private. I contacted the host, bluehost, about it. It was a clear violation of their TOS and they made the page lead to just a 504 error when clicked. However, the page still showed up in search results. I contacted the owner via her "contact me" info on her blog. She said she must have been hacked and did not set up the page with our company name, etc. She removed it, and next time the search engines crawled and indexed it was gone. Now about trademarks...I'm fighting for that right now too! Not as easy as you would think sometimes. Some of those USPTO lawyers can be a lil overzealous!
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