Google Angers With Trademark Move

Google changes its UK AdWords policy to allow those who don’t own a trademark to still bid on trademarked items – and a number of people are unhappy about that, with legal action possible.

In its march onward, Google doesn’t always make it easy for itself. Now a change in its UK AdWords policy has annoyed a number of companies.   Thechange means that companies that don’t own the trademark on an item or service will still be able to bid on trademarked terms in AdWords. However, advertisers will still have to comply withrestrictions on using the trademark in ad text.   Previously, when a trademarked item was searched on Google, the site of the trademark holder would appear in top position, but that will nolonger necessarily be the case.   Perhaps understandably, a number of companies are angry at the move, and some are mulling legal action, even though Google has claimed the move will improve theuser experience.   "It’s ironic that Google, who is always quick to defend its own trademark, would make such a move," Ian McCaig, chief executive of Lastminute.com, told Vnunet. He claimed that the move is simply to increase the number of clicks on the system, and said thatfigures from monitor Hitwise show that 93% of those searching Google for his site end up clicking through, a sign that people know exactly what they want.  One worry is that this move can devalue trade marks, and effectively allow those willing to spend the money to hijack them.