: Ok to target product names in adwords? If I have widget company called "Widget Designer" and I have a direct competitor who has "Widgitator Version 5", am I allowed to target a campaign using

@Kevin317

What is Google's AdWords and AdSense trademark policy?


Google recognizes the importance of
trademarks. Our AdWords Terms and
Conditions prohibit intellectual
property infringement by advertisers.
Advertisers are responsible for the
keywords they choose to generate
advertisements and the text that they
choose to use in those advertisements.

Google takes allegations of trademark
infringement very seriously and, as a
courtesy, we investigate matters
raised by trademark owners. Trademarks
are territorial and apply only to
certain goods or services. Therefore,
different parties can own the same
mark in different countries or
different industries. Accordingly, in
processing complaints, Google will ask
the trademark owner for information
regarding where the mark is valid and
for what goods or services. Please
note the following about our complaint
process:


The trademark owner doesn't need to be a Google AdWords advertiser in
order to send a complaint.
Any such investigation will only affect ads served on or by Google.
Google's trademark policy does not apply to search results. Our
investigations only apply to sponsored
links. For trademark concerns about
websites that appear in Google search
results, the trademark owner should
contact the site owner directly.
In the case of an AdSense for Domains trademark complaint, an
investigation will affect only the
participation of the domain name in
question in our AdSense for Domains
program.
Because Google is not a third-party arbiter, we encourage trademark owners
to resolve their disputes directly
with the advertisers, particularly
because the advertisers may have
similar ads running via other
advertising programs.

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@Rambettina238

I have stumbled upon this many times when using Google.

However, something I have recently noticed:

I live in Amsterdam and there are many companies offering (company)outings. Over the last 2 years the competitions has been growing and the companies started advertising using each others company names. This has been going on for a while and now since a couple of weeks all these advertisements are gone!

I guess your competitor will find out very soon. If Google will find out is more difficult to say, but according to the above example my expectation is they, sooner or later, will. The consequence will most probably be that you will not be able to use that keyword any more... But it also largely depends on the keyword itself. When its generic it seems unlikely Google can block Advertisers from using it.

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