trademarks & other legal fun stuff in pay per click advertising
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From the SMX East 2014 Conference in New York City, NY. SESSION: Protecting Your Brand From Online Fraud. PRESENTATION: Trademarks & Other Legal Fun Stuff in Pay Per Click Advertising - Given by Jennifer Slegg, @jenstar, Editor - The SEM Post. #SMX #31BTRANSCRIPT
Trademarks & Other Legal Fun Stuff in Pay Per ClickJennifer Slegg
TheSEMPost.com
@jenstar
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
• Founder of The SEM Post for advanced industry news & tips
• Consulting for SEO / Google penalties, PPC, content marketing & content monetization
• I am Canadian
• Twitter: @jenstar @TheSEMPost
• Email: [email protected]
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Trademark, Copyright
• When you can compare brands
• When you should bid on competitor’s brands
• Handling brand warfare & asserting your own brand in PPC
• Trademarks in PPC – what can or can’t you do?
• Stolen ad copy – any recourse?
• Stolen landing pages – any recourse?
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
When you can compare brands
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
When you can compare brands
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
When you can compare brands
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Escalating Brand Warfare
• Consider “gentleman’s agreement” IF
• your brand is better known
• Low conversion on competitve brand ads
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Affiliate Brand Warfare
• Embrace it!
• It is better your affiliates run ads that promote you rather than leaving it open (and cheap) for competitors
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Using Sitelinks to Assert Brand
• Most rely on title to assert “official” orauthentic only
• Using sitelinks to assert brand
• “Official ___ site”
• “Brand/trademark reseller”
• “Authentic brand/trademark”
• “My brand / trademark”
• Use trademark symbols to stand out
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
When to bid on competitor’s brand• Cheap traffic
• Competitor isn’t bidding
• Brand exposure
• Drive their CPC up
• Focus on:
• Comparisons
• Features that competitor’s lack
• Special offers / deals
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Keyword trademarks
• Bidding on trademarked keywords is fine
• Google and Bing will not investigate trademark claims on keywords
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Using trademarks in ad copy
• Trademarks cannot appear in ad copy EXCEPT in certain situations
• AdWords Ads targeting US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand
• Resellers permitted to use trademarks
• Informational sites whose main purpose is NOT selling the product
• Cannot be used to lead to competitor’s products (ie. iPhone in ad copy but leads to Galaxy landing page)
• Bing Ads will investigate trademarks in ad copy at customer’s request, including comparative ads
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Using trademarks in ad copy
• Trademarks CAN appear in display URLsin AdWords but NOT Bing Ads
• Can only be enforced in countries youDO hold the trademark for
• https://services.google.com/inquiry/aw_tmcomplaint
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Oddball Trademark Issues
• Sometimes your use of a trademarked term has nothing to do with the actual trademark.
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Oddball Trademark Issues
• AdWords:
• Email [email protected]
• Trademark term
• Text of ad
• Keywords
• Customer ID
• Screenshot if possible
• Bing Ads
• Request an exemption within account
• If disapproved a second time, decision is final.
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Protecting Your Trademark
• AdWords:
• File a complaint with Google
• Submit site exemptions for those who are permitted to use it
• Affiliates, resellers, partners
• Don’t forget to add yourself!
• Bing Ads
• You must be proactive and contact Bing Ads individually
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Ad Copy
• Google doesn’t police this but will forward a complaint
• Send a cease and desist to advertiser for copyright infringement
• Many will remove as they don’t want to get on Google’s bad side, so use it to your advantage.
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
How to Find Stolen Pages
• Select 8-12 keywords in the MIDDLE of the page in the MIDDLE of the paragraph
• Put “ “ around the phrase
• Search it in Google and Bing
• If more than one copy of your article shows, check the repeat the search with the omitted results included. There could be more!
• There are also third party tools to police this.• Copyscape (paid)
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Landing Pages
• Make sure you allow archive.org toindex landing pages
• Even though many block all bots, it is worth allowing if you have problems later.
• If you know competitor’s IP, block or redirect them… or….
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Landing Pages
• Or you can serve them their own special landing page to copy
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• Play nice or not so nice?
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• Send cease and desist – yes, this is the “nice” way!
• Send via email to all addresses found.
• Set priority to high
• Request a read receipt (not all people will do this, but we usually aren’t dealing with the brightest here )
• Ask for removal of content within X hours (usually 24, 48 or 72 hours)
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• The “not so nice” way…
• File DMCA with Google
• Removes the URL from Google Search Results
• Prevents it from being used as an AdWords landing page.
• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-dashboard
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• The “not so nice” way…
• File DMCA with Bing
• Can file infringements for both paid search & regular search
• https://www.microsoft.com/info/Search.aspx
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• The “not so nice” way…
• File DMCA with any other relevant search engine or site to your competitor.
• DMOZ listing
• AOL property
• Yahoo
• Yandex
• Duck Duck Go
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Stolen Content
• The “really not so nice” way
• File DMCA with host
• Removes page from servers or suspends hosting account
• File DMCA with registrar
• Depending on registrar, suspends website or entire account.
• Are they running AdSense on the site? Report them to AdSense too
Jennifer Slegg JenniferSlegg.com @jenstarJennifer Slegg TheSEMPost.com @jenstar
Jennifer Slegg @Jenstar
• Founder of The SEM Post for advanced industry news
• Consulting for SEO / Google penalties, PPC, content marketing & content monetization
• I am Canadian
• Twitter: @jenstar @TheSEMPost
• Email: [email protected]