3 ms·

Might trademark law have something to say about this practice?

• howard941 7y ago
  In the US the only things that matter in trademark are Lanham Act matters, specifically whether there's a likelihood of confusion (ignoring for the moment active use in commerce and other infringement elements). Simply returning a competitor's ad when searching someone else's trade name isn't enough (citation needed). You might ask whether state bar ethics rules have a different take? And the answer is yes, with results all over the place. This DDG search may be of interest: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22bar%22+buying+competitors+keyword&t=ffab&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22bar%22+buying+competitors+keywo...
• Uw7yTcf36gTc 7y ago
  If you have a registered trademark you can have Google block other advertisers from visually using your trademark in an ad. However, that doesn't prevent them from using the trademark as the keyword target (the non-visible part of the ad).