AdWords Trademark Policy (Part 2 of 2)

In part one of the AdWords Trademark Policy series, we reviewed the trademark complaint procedure and also answered some of the common questions asked by trademark owners. Today, we will answer the two most common questions asked by advertisers who would like to use trademarked terms in their ad text or keywords lists. Here they are:

My ad was disapproved per your trademark policy, but I should be able to use the trademarked term "Blue Widgets" in my ad because I actually sell the product Blue Widgets on my website. What gives?

We monitor the use of a trademark because the trademark owner has filed a complaint. For ads targeting the US and Canada, we will review ad text but not keywords. For ads targeting regions outside the US and Canada, we may review both your keyword list and ad text for trademarked terms per the trademark owner's complaint.

If you believe that you are authorized to use the trademark term in question, please contact the trademark owner directly to resolve your dispute. If the trademark owner approves your use of the trademark term, we will need to receive written confirmation directly from the trademark owner in order to authorize your use of the trademark.

I am an official dealer of Blue Widgets and the company said I could use the trademark in my ad text. Are you sure this isn’t a mistake?

As mentioned above, we will not allow the use of a trademark term according to the parameters of the trademark complaint filed by the trademark owner. Therefore, unless the trademark owner specifically grants you permission to use their trademarked term by contacting our Trademark team, we are not able to approve the use of the trademark in your AdWords ads. (Instructions on how a trademark owner can contact our Trademark team can be found in part one of this series.)

We hope this series has helped clarify our trademark policy as it applies to AdWords ads. Please keep in mind that this policy only applies to AdWords ads and not Google search results.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew