Competitor using my Co name in Adwords campaign.

[Clodbuster]

A German company has come onto the UK market and is using my company name in their Adwords campaign. I

Is this a bit off sides or are they free to do so?

 

[surreyaces]

Do you have a registered trade mark for the company name? Does their ad campaign imply that their business is connected to (or associated with) yours in any way?

 

[Alan]

Depends if your company name is a trade marked word (which it does not appear to be). If you company name is trademarked then they can't use it at all. https://adwords.googleblog.com/2006/12/adwords-trademark-policy-part-1-of-2.html
http://blogs.lexisnexis.co.uk/wipit/interflora-v-ms-adwords-are-ok-says-court-of-appeal/

 

[surreyaces]

It's not quite as simple as that I'm afraid. Type LADBROKES into Google - I bet you will see sponsored advertisements for other bookmakers

 

[Clodbuster]

Thanks, I guess I'll just have to include theirs into my campaign as a bit of tit for tat.

 

[surreyaces]

Be careful that they don't have a registered trade mark. If they do, you may still be able to use the mark in your own adwords but you would need to tread carefully.

 

[Alan]

A German company has come onto the UK market and is using my company name in their Adwords campaign.

Can you clarify are they using it in the
a) adcopy - in which case generally that would be considered trademark infringement if you had a trade mark
b) in the keywords ( as per @surreyaces example ) in which case the court battle between M&S and Interflora shows that generally that is acceptable ( on appeal )

 

[Clodbuster]

Alan, it is being used as a keyword.

There is nothing in the ad to say they are linked to me, just the impression. I'm quite chuffed that they think little me is important enough to attack.

 

[Alan]

Doesn't mean the management know anything about it, if they have outsourced their campaign management the Adwords company have probably just looked at competitors and targeting them all.

This is one reason you should bid on your own brand, un-intuitive as that may seem, your quality score will be much higher than theirs so it makes it uneconomic for them and their add will be below yours. Sure you take a small hit in terms of paying for what is organically 'yours' but it is better than losing what is 'rightfully yours' to a competitor.

 

[Nochexman]

Alan, it is being used as a keyword.

We get it all the time and it really is quite flattering. You need to identify how the variants of your name work in keywords: for example someone looking for "Clodbuster Ltd" is possibly trying to find out how to complain or to sell to you; whereas, someone searching for "Clodbuster fences" is possibly a sale. You should have a different bid strategy for each variant - this is how you get payback on competitors.