Google Trademark - The Rubbish Begins ..

[gadget]

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I've just had the following email from a merchant ..

"We do not allow affiliates to brand bid on [merchant name]'s brand name or urls."

Okay, nothing unusual or difficult to manage there. They continue ..

"We do not allow affiliates to brand bid on any of [merchant name] competitors brand names or urls, this includes exact, broad and phrase matched keywords."

What they don't say is who they see as their competitors. This particular merchant is in the consumer electronics market. Are they seriously suggesting that I don't brand bid on ANY merchant that happens to sell the same products as they do?!

[ian-d]

Wouldn't they actually be saying that you cannot promote that merchant using competitors names, rather than not allowing you to promote their competitors.

I.e. don't link to 'Comet' using 'Dixons' as a keyword, but you are fine to promote 'Dixons' directly on their own programme (albeit probably again with keyword restrictions)

If that makes sense