Google Ads trade mark complaints: what they can and can't changeGoogle Ads trade mark complaints: what they can and can't change

Yourbrand's legal team has a suggestion: since the company owns the trade mark, why not file a complaint with Google and stop affiliates bidding on the name? It's a reasonable question, and the answer is that a complaint can't do that. It can do something narrower, and sometimes useful, and this guide sets out exactly what.

Google writes “trademark” as one word, and so do the names of its policy and tools. This guide uses the British “trade mark” for the thing itself, and Google's spelling for its pages.

What the policy restricts, and what it doesn't

• Never restricted: keywords. Anyone can bid on your name as a keyword, wherever you hold rights. There is no UK or European exception.
• Never restricted: the domain of the display URL. The domain an ad's display URL shows isn't restricted, whatever name it carries, so an ad showing yourbrand.example isn't affected by a complaint about your mark.
• Restricted after a valid complaint: your mark in the ad itself, where the ad comes from a direct competitor, or uses the mark in a confusing, deceptive or misleading way. On the landing page only, it doesn't count.

The policy covers Google Ads and Display & Video 360. An ad restricted under it shows as Eligible (limited) in the advertiser's account: it can still run, but not where your restriction applies. Google warns at least seven days before suspending an account for not following the policy.

Since 24 July 2023: named advertisers only

Until July 2023 an owner could ask Google to restrict a mark across a whole industry. Since 24 July 2023 Google only accepts complaints against specific advertisers, identified by their URLs, and only in the countries and industries where you've shown rights in the mark. Restrictions made under the old system were phased out over the following 12 to 18 months.

A restriction generally applies on an ongoing basis to any ad using the same second-level domain in its final URL. So it follows the domain the ads lead to, not one account: a new account sending clicks to the same domain is usually covered.

The exceptions

• Resellers and compatible goods. A landing page mainly selling, or clearly helping to sell, the goods, their parts or compatible products, with a clear way to buy and commercial details such as prices. The ad and the page should make clear the advertiser is a reseller.
• Informational pages. A page whose main purpose is information about the goods.
• Indexes. A page that lists search results related to the mark.
• Descriptive use. Using the word in its ordinary meaning, which matters if your brand is also a common word.

A voucher site's page of codes for your brand is close to an informational page or an index, so its ad may keep your name in the text after a complaint. A reseller selling your goods is the first exception by name.

Why it can't stop brand bidding

Brand bidding is keyword targeting, and keywords are outside the policy. Trade mark law in Europe has taken a similar line since the EU Court of Justice's 2010 ruling in joined cases C-236/08 to C-238/08: the test is whether a reasonably well-informed and observant internet user can tell from the ad whose goods it offers. An affiliate's ad that leads to your own shop sells your own goods, so trade mark law is usually a weak tool against it. This isn't legal advice: your lawyers will know how it applies to you.

Your programme terms are the lever for affiliates. They can rule out bidding on your name, appearing on it, using it in ad text and linking straight to your site, and Google's Unfair advantage policy lists affiliates advertising against their programme's rules. The guide to paid-search rules covers the clauses.

How to file, step by step

1. Decide what you want changed. If it's who bids on your name, use your terms and Unfair advantage instead. If it's your mark in someone's ad text, carry on.
2. List the advertisers, by the URLs their ads lead to, and the ads themselves with screenshots, dates and the searches they showed on.
3. Check each against the exceptions. A reseller or an informational page is unlikely to be restricted.
4. List your approved partners who use your mark in their ad text. A restriction may limit their ads too, so plan to authorise them.
5. Open the Google Ads Trademark Troubleshooter. Under “Who are you?”, choose “Trademark owner or authorized representative of the trademark owner”, then the option that fits, such as an ad in live search using your mark.
6. Follow it to the complaint form, which opens on Google's Report content on Google page and asks you to verify your email address first.
7. Give the mark, where it's registered, the countries and the advertisers' URLs. Keep a copy of everything you send.
8. Recheck the ads after Google's answer: the same searches, the same advertisers, and their ads in the Ads Transparency Center.

Authorising a partner

The troubleshooter's owner options include authorising an advertiser to use your mark in its ads, or withdrawing an earlier complaint. Google's last published authorisation form asked for the advertiser's 10-digit Google Ads customer ID, not a manager account's, and authorisations had no expiry date or territorial limits. If you authorise a partner, record which accounts and when, and say in your terms what the permission covers.

The ordinary explanations

After a complaint, your mark can still appear in ads for reasons that don't mean anything went wrong.

• The advertiser is a reseller, or its page is informational, so an exception applies.
• You, or someone before you, authorised the account.
• The ad leads to a different domain from the URLs in the complaint.
• The ad runs in a country or for goods your complaint didn't cover.
• The word in the ad is used in its ordinary meaning.
• Your name is in the display URL's domain or in the keyword, not in the ad text, and neither is restricted.

If the ad is an affiliate's on your name, the guide to reporting an ad and What you can do cover the routes that fit better.