Jim recently mentioned over on Linked-In that a company named ‘PlasmaCam’ had sent him a letter from their law firm claiming he was infringing on their trade name as his ads were displaying on Google each time a user would search for ‘PlasmaCam’.

Trademark terms in PPC advertising has always been a sticky subject, the debate between Interflora and Marks & Spencer has long highlighted this. Interflora claim that Marks are infringing on their company name and this has seen a rise in their advertising cost, the debate can be read over at the Interflora Blog.

At the PPC Training Academy we are here to tell you the truth about the trademark advertising rules. The truth is that you cannot be sued for advertising on another companies brand term whether you are purposely doing it or linking to it via broad match of another keyword term. The truth it IS PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE.

The below has been written by Google on the updates page:

“Google has made a policy revision that applies to complaints we receive regarding trademark use in keywords. Beginning 4 June 2009, keywords that were restricted as a result of a trademark investigation will no longer be restricted”

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143903

Therefore according to this if someone wants to sue you , don’t worry about it, if Interflora are struggling to sue Marks then in Jim’s case PlasmaCam suing him… well its never going to happen! Must just be some jumped up business man!.

Tutors at the PPC Training Academy all agree that having run a number of campaigns for clients where they’ve advertised on competitors terms that its not entirely worth it!

There are a few reasons why – firstly, if a user is looking for a particular company they are highly unlikely to click on your ad even if your ads are showing regardless. Your CTR will be low but if your ad copy is strong you may be able to persuade people to convert but don’t expect to much traffic or sales from advertising on someone else’s brand.

The rule we go by at the PPC Training academy is that if someone is advertising on my brand term I will advertise on theirs, this will mean they could lose sales but also the fact that their advertising costs with Google will increase. No one wants to be position 2 for their brand term so will pay as high a Cost per Click as required to be number 1.

All in all the PPC Training academy feel it is a matter of business etiquette and respect to not be so desperate that you advertise on your competitors brand keyword terms. However if you do find someone advertising on your brand by all means write to them and ask them to stop, if they refuse your one solution is to advertise on their brand name and bump up their advertising costs. Explain to them in your letter this is what you will be doing, they may then take their ppc ads down and stop advertising on your keywords.

The one thing you must be aware of is that you cannot use another brands name in your ad copy if they have trademarked there term – for example ‘Fifa’ and ‘Land Rover’ have both filled in the legitimate documentation to prove they own the trademark name. As a result other advertisers can bid on the keyword term but cannot use it in their PPC ad copy.

If you want any further help regarding PPC be sure to visit the academy for PPC TRAINING