Trademarked Term!

**Scorpioncart** · 13-03-08

Can someone shed some light on how to get around the Trademarked Term restriction on adwords please.
TIA
Kev

**Barry** · 13-03-08

I am not entirely sure but I think you can get the trademark holder to write to google on your behalf stating you have express permission to use the TM term.

Ta

**mainlime** · 13-03-08

Barry is correct.

There are also other slightly sneaky ways round it. Misspellings are one. There are plenty of websites and downloads which will create all possible misspellings of a word in seconds.

If the trademark is a combination of two generic words you can get away with splitting them up and using them as a phrase eg if SuperTrousers is a trademark you can still bid on "super trousers".

**Scorpioncart** · 13-03-08

Originally Posted by mainlime

Barry is correct.

There are also other slightly sneaky ways round it. Misspellings are one. There are plenty of websites and downloads which will create all possible misspellings of a word in seconds.

If the trademark is a combination of two generic words you can get away with splitting them up and using them as a phrase eg if SuperTrousers is a trademark you can still bid on "super trousers".

I have looked at misspelling it but it doesn't look right, also the people who would be searching for it might take offense if I spell it wrong (I cant elaborate on that without revealing the keyword

) .

The keyword produces 99,800,000 results in google with only 2 ppc ads appearing so you can see why I would like to use it

**mainlime** · 13-03-08

Originally Posted by Scorpioncart

I have looked at misspelling it but it doesn't look right, also the people who would be searching for it might take offense if I spell it wrong (I cant elaborate on that without revealing the keyword

) .

The keyword produces 99,800,000 results in google with only 2 ppc ads appearing so you can see why I would like to use it

Ah OK. I presume you're talking about using the keyword in the ad copy. I was thinking only of using it as a keyword. Have you tried using a generic ad triggered by the keyword misspellings? Eg "Top brand training shoes" triggered by misspellings of Nike or Reebok

**morleymouse** · 13-03-08

just ask the TM holder for permission, if you explain why I cant see why there'd be a problem

**GettingPersonal** · 13-03-08

Just as an aside on this - I've just had an ad disapproved because of a trademark issue. The trademark in question, quite worryingly was - Father Christmas. Looks like the big fella has finally got switched onto the power of his brand, what next, image rights?

**getvisible** · 13-03-08

Just as an aside on this - I've just had an ad disapproved because of a trademark issue. The trademark in question, quite worryingly was - Father Christmas. Looks like the big fella has finally got switched onto the power of his brand, what next, image rights?

they do make me laugh! Did you fill in the box and tell them they're a bunch of numpties?

**mainlime** · 13-03-08

Believe it or not, it is a trademark : Trade marks - find by number

Although what the "none relating to father Christmas" bit is all about is anyone's guess.

**jd1977** · 13-03-08

I would recommend asking permission from them, they might allow or approve certain ads you could use , using their term. It can cost hundreds , if not thousands in legal and register/application fees to register a trade mark, which is valid for 10 years. So there is no real way around it , you can do variations ie Big Mac is trademarked but you could use big-mac, or bigmacs or something like that.