4 ms·
> You are right - That’s another practice is morally dubious (And imo should be outlawed!) Where this gets tricky is when a business has a name along the lines
by yokem55 5y ago
> You are right - That’s another practice is morally dubious (And imo should be outlawed!)
Where this gets tricky is when a business has a name along the lines of [city name] [generic product category].
If this was outlawed, a competitor to a business named Foo-town Yard Care would be effectively blocked from advertising on Google.
- criddell 5y agoCan you get a trademark for Foo-town Yard Care?
- mbreese 5y agoWhy wouldn’t you be able to? Specific-word plus generic word(s) seems to be a good formula for trademarks. $mycity lawn care would be just fine. But it would make it difficult to let’s others advertise for lawn care in $mycity.
- Closi 5y agoThat would be classed as a descriptive mark and is unlikely to be granted registration. > Descriptive marks are a type of trademark that are usually composed of a word or words that merely describe a product or that identify the characteristics of a product and are generally considered weak marks. In other words, these are descriptions that could be attributed to the goods or services offered by a business. Generally, such marks are unlikely to be granted registration or protection under trademark law. However, descriptive words may be registered and protected by the law if they acquire “secondary meaning.” This happens when the original or primary meaning of the descriptive words becomes exclusively associated with a particular business. Source: https://www.kirkpatricklawpc.com/blog/what-descriptive-trademark/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=LinkedIn-integration https://www.kirkpatricklawpc.com/blog/what-descriptive-trade...
- Closi 5y agoAnother interesting policy is that Google's Ad policy says "We don’t investigate or restrict trademarks as keywords.", however they will protect against ads on their own product search terms and trademarks. I work for a company where our competitors are paying for ads over our brandname, but try to do that for Google...
- cyborgx7 5y ago> Another interesting policy is that Google's Ad policy says "We don’t investigate or restrict trademarks as keywords.", however they will protect against ads on their own product search terms and trademarks. Sounds like an anti-trust issue.