Adwords question - targetting other brand names

[petera]

Been asked a question by a client that I can honestly say I don't know the answer to. Hopefully someone on here can help.

One of my client's competitors has just gone bust, their website has been disabled and they are currently dropping down the rankings. The company in question was at the top of Google for a particular search term but is no longer. My client therefore wants to get a PPC advert at the top of the paid listings to take advantage of this - he wants to know to what extent (legally) he can use this other company's name? Now obviously he can bid on it as a search term but is he OK to use it in his ad text, headline etc?

 

[domainguy]

I cant advise legally but who's there to sue them for doing so? is the company actually bust and not in administration?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Google have a trademark policy, but unless this is a trademark then it doesn't apply.

If he is using the name of the other company it MUST be within the laws of advertising
legal
decent
honest
truthfull
If he steps outside of that then he can be reported.

He can say

ex dodgyco customer?
We can help you
domain.com

an ad like that is fine. Even though the company has gone bust there is still a chance he can get pulled up for passing off and end up dealing with Trading standards.

The obvious caveat is also that he doesn't want to be associated or confused with a company that has gone bust

 

[mubin]

1) Company has gone bust, and with it I am guessing any copyrights, is he going after a "brand" or a term?

2) I belive GooGle has now started allowign people to bid on copyrighted keywords, but not sure if you can use it in the actual ad copy.

 

[GNU]

Been asked a question by a client that I can honestly say I don't know the answer to. Hopefully someone on here can help.

One of my client's competitors has just gone bust, their website has been disabled and they are currently dropping down the rankings. The company in question was at the top of Google for a particular search term but is no longer. My client therefore wants to get a PPC advert at the top of the paid listings to take advantage of this - he wants to know to what extent (legally) he can use this other company's name? Now obviously he can bid on it as a search term but is he OK to use it in his ad text, headline etc?

First up... why dont you buy the competitors site? You can re-brand it or 301 it to your own.

Ref your question, Im no lawyer, but I guess it depends on what the text is... if you ran something like

Acme Widgets Ltd
went bust, try
Bonanza Widgets Instead

you would be alright... just dont impersonate the other site.

 

[petera]

First up... why dont you buy the competitors site? You can re-brand it or 301 it to your own.

Ref your question, Im no lawyer, but I guess it depends on what the text is... if you ran something like

Acme Widgets Ltd
went bust, try
Bonanza Widgets Instead

you would be alright... just dont impersonate the other site.

I've instructed my client to do this already but he's waiting to see if the company relaunch under another name. He's actually planning to make an offer for the company's stock, client base etc. but he has to wait to see what unfolds first.