I recently did a search for "Free Air Miles" hoping to find some deals or promotions where I could earn some free Air Miles (for research purposes). In addition to finding what you would expect to see on a SERP, there was also a sponsored result-- for TD Canada Trust!.
TD has no affiliation with the AIR MILES Reward Program (the trademark licensee in Canada) or LoyaltyOne (the operators of the program) or even The Loyalty Management Group (which operates the trademark in various other locales). No-- this sponsored listing dropped directly to a TD Travel Points Infinite Visa landing page pitching the newest TD credit card.Deception? I think so. Google's adwords policies DO allow a company to buy keywords that are trademarked, to try to draw competitive business. It makes sense from Google's perspective because they are never displaying the keywords, it's there system, and ultimately it makes two companies try to outbid each other for the same words of the more popular competitor.
What is Google's trademark policy?Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we're happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.The trademark owner is not required to be a Google AdWords advertiser in order to send a complaint. Please also note that any such investigation will only affect ads served on or by Google. In the case of an AdSense for Domains trademark complaint, an investigation will affect only the domain names of sites in our AdSense for Domains program.Google does block the use of trademarks in ad text, if the trademark owner has filed an objection, but it allows you to choose any keyword to trigger your ad, including competing company names and trademarks. Can you buy trademarked keywords?It is important to use care when doing this, to avoid misleading consumers. For example, if you use "keyword insertion" so that the search phrase is echoed in the ad headline, then consumers might be confused and believe they are clicking to the competitor's site (this is an unfair advertising tactic, and it's also not likely to be very effective since those visitors won't understand why they got to your site). Therefore, you should not use "keyword insertion" for ads that are triggered by competing company names or trademarks.Note that the "Quality Score" for your keyword will be low unless you have prominent text on the "landing page" that refers to the competitor -- for these campaigns, it might help to create a special landing page explaining why your company is better than the competition, or with a chart comparing features or pricing or service. Again, the landing page should not be deceptive or misleading (for example, if you are Energizer and your competitor is Duracell, you can't have a landing page or ad text with the title "Buy Duracell batteries here" or "Best price on Duracell batteries" if you don't actually sell those products). Note also that Google has restrictions on "comparison" ads.Where trademark protection comes in is with headlines, body copy, and display URL's.
But in this case, they have actually broken Google's trademark policy (and likely some kind of intellectual property law somewhere) by actually making the headline "Air Miles" (See the picture). If they had left it out of the headline they would have been fine, but because it's all happening in Canada, and LoyaltyOne owns the trademark rights to this Geo-Target, it is sloppy, and frankly underhanded for a big five bank.
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