Legal issues

Originally Posted by born2optimise

so, do you mean to say that we can sue that competitor?

Originally Posted by sorvoja

In addition, we ensure that those ads are not improperly using the trade mark as a keyword trigger. If they are, we disable those keywords from the ad campaign so that the trade marked keywords do not trigger the advertisements.[/size]

Their campaigns (all of them) got disabled!

Originally Posted by gchaney

Yeah...another book...lol

Are they using the clients company name - properly filed with the state of CA, in the advertisement? i.e. "Dave's Creamy Cremations, Inc." Yes, imho, you can. Is it worth it? Probably not. You must prove monetary damages and most likely the amount won't exceed the amount your attorney is going to charge you to sue...lol A nice letter from your clients attorney, cheap, will typically end this. Litigation is no place, imho, to attempt revenge.

Are they using the clients company name to trigger an adwords advertisement? imho, no you can't.

Is the client companies name TM? If so, you can get them to stop using filing the proper form with Google to protect your trademark from being used within any adwords campaign by anyone.

Suing for TM infringement is typically not worth it unless the company or individual flatly refuses to adhere to trademark laws. Litigation most likely will not accomplish much given the steps of notification - if the competitor quits using it once told of the infringement. it's simply not worth the costs, imho, unless the individual or company refuses to respect a trademark/SM. Then you have to make sure they weren't using the TM or SM prior to your use much less have anything worth suing for. End up wasting money. Almost all (except Mick...lol) will remove anothers TM/SM with a proper form letter sent by an attorney - approximately $75 bucks. Adwords is easy by simply filing the online form.

If it is not trademarked, you have very little to no protection on a given phrase for a given market/industry. Copywrite law does not protect phrases or individual words. That is what Trademark laws do. Sentences...You may have a leg to stand on.....hmmm...maybe stub of a leg. Copywrite laws are geared more towards "Complete Works" rather than any single range of words.

If your clients company name is a general industry term, whether Incorporated or as a properly filed D/B/A -

A good example - "Classic Antiques, Inc." DBA "Classic Antiques"

You most certainly will have, imho, no case for preventing a competitor, whether local or not, from advertising or selling Classic Antiques within your market as the term can properly represents a "general" category of goods sold in the industry, something no one company can claim to be unique in. In this situation, your client could attempt to sue, but would most likely be countered and lose not only the case, but most likely, lots of money.

A good sign or a strong brand (corporate identity) is the ability to trademark for a single or multiple sectors. If you can, you can maximize your companies legal protection for your products and services. If you can't, due to being declined for a trademark, give up any idea that you can sue for anything regarding a given name, phrase or string of words.

Regardless, get the expert opinion of an attorney before trying to infringe upon your competitors right to advertise. Your attorney should insure you have the legal legs to stand on before submitting any form to Google/MSN/Yahoo (whether a online form or a CMSA), shooting nasty/polite e-mails to hosts, site owners or anyone else could open you and your client company to a can of whoop a55.

If you inadvertantly infringe on a another companies ability to do business without cause, your client could face a law suit of their own making. In today litigation crazy state of mind, always best to cover your bottom.

A good watermark to go by is this basic fact; if it's not worth paying your attorney $500 to $2000 to provide you a written statement of findings related to a matter, then it's just not worth messing with. If you don't have the money to pay for legal counsel, then the revenue you are loosing obviously isn't worth the hassle.

Yes...I hate attornies. It costs me an arm and a leg to have any matter reviewed and is always a distraction to me, the small business owner, simply trying to make more money. If I had tons of employees to conduct the business, then I am sure my thoughts on this would be different. Hope to get to that level one day...lol

The best protection, and best branding, comes from Trademark protection. Anymore, if I am serious about something, I file for trademark protection. Though it's more difficult due to the responsibility you have as the owner of the trademark, is much simpler from the stand point of protecting your branding (company name) given the automatic protections of trademark law.

A trademark makes it clear cut and eliminates any questions. If I am ABC Inc. d/b/a ABC - selling goods or services in the XYZ Field, I am going to file a TM for ABC in my class of categories. As I develop my company name as a brand, I can expand my protection to addition TM's and SM's as the company grows in profitability.

Hope I understood your question, and gave you some strong answers that help you and your client to move in the right direction.

Originally Posted by born2optimise

Can we sue?

Originally Posted by BidRank

I replied to Google yesterday and referenced this thread as evidence that they DO remove AdWords that violate trademarks/company names. They replied that they do, but just not for the United States or Canada!!!!!! Here's the wonderful response.

Thank you for your email. As stated in my previous email from August 8th, 2005, we have ceased monitoring all keyword requests for U.S. and Canadian trademarks. As a result, we will not be able to process your request to remove ads that are using your trademark term as a keyword in advertisers' AdWords accounts. If you wish to file a complaint letter regarding ad text under our policy, please refer to www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html#1 for details on how to submit a complaint.

Please note, we are processing keyword requests for advertisers outside US and Canada. If you own trademark rights in countries outside US and Canada, please send us your trademark registration information and we will be happy to investigate this for you. Otherwise you can contact the advertiser directly to resolve this dispute.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Best Regards,

Natasha
Google AdWords Trademark Team

Two demerit points for Google...