Google ends its policy of trademark protection in the UK. August 28, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , trackbackCompetition between advertisers has always been intense but a change being implemented by Google will give companies the chance to hijack each other’s brands online.
From Monday, it will become possible for J Sainsbury to place an advertisement that appears anytime someone in Britain types Tesco as a search term, as Google ends its policy of trademark protection in the UK.
The move is already unsettling some big-name advertisers, with Tesco pledging to take the “moral high ground” and not bid against rival brands on Google, in the hope that it will not face aggressive competition.
Other brand owners are more unhappy still, with Ian McCaig, the chief executive of lastminute.com telling Channel 4 News that he was considering legal action. “We believe that Google’s policy change is a big problem and we object to it. We are investigating with vigour the legal position and if that investigation concludes positively then we will pursue a legal case, no question.”
Google is the most-visited site on the internet, accounting for more than a third of UK traffic. Consumers increasingly use the search engine to find even the most familiar brands – making any change to its policy critical.
David Kyffin, managing director of direct/digital at WPP’s Group M, said many clients were concerned about the change. “They would like to see more competition to Google in the UK but Google is so dominant that it is not possible to buy enough adverts on Yahoo! or MSN to reach as big an audience.” Google’s only concession to brand owners is to ban attack advertising and to ensure that nobody misuses a competitor’s trademark.
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