Yahoo Search Marketing to Ban Trademark Keyword Ads
In an answer to some of the legal battles and issues concerning competitive bidding on Trademarked Terms, Yahoo Search Marketing is banning bids on Trademarks come March 1st. Yahoo has issued the following email to some of their advertisers.
“On March 1, 2006, Yahoo! Search Marketing will modify its editorial guidelines regarding the use of keywords containing trademarks. Previously, we allowed competitive advertising by allowing advertisers to bid on third-party trademarks if those advertisers offered detailed comparative information about the trademark owner’s products or services in comparison to the competitive products and services that were offered or promoted on the advertiser’s site.
In order to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on terms that are trademarks, Yahoo! Search Marketing has determined that we will no longer allow bidding on keywords containing competitor trademarks.”
Aaron Wall of SEOBook notes :
“Trademark terms are some of the most valuable words in the search space. While this move may not be surprising given Yahoo!’s past activities, will this move cause other engines to change their policies? How will this policy effect comparison sites which offer many brands on the landing page? Is Yahoo! trying to commoditize the search marketplace to help them make more money away from search?”
Good questions from Aaron and I’ve pinged Yahoo Search Marketing’s Public Relations team for those Answers (hmmm, I wonder if Yahoo Answers will help..).
I also can’t help but wonder how this will effect the demand of Competitive SEO & ranking for trademarked terms of your competition in organic results. I know of some companies who have practiced this and have done quite well, especially for niche markets. For any of you Organic Search Experts in the crowd, do you notice a large demand for this service?
Comments
4 responses so far ↓
Gareth White on Feb 24, 2006 at 9:46 am
I think its good to limit use of trademarks however which countries trademarks do you consider valid? Google has already had to change gmail in the uk to googlemail as its US gmail patent had no authority over an existing Uk patent.
Pure Visibility on Feb 24, 2006 at 9:46 am
I’ve had a client bidding on competitor trademarks who has been extremely successful, and this will be very bad news to them (they are number 3 in their market).
SEO-wise they haven’t made much of an effort to target competitor terms, but I’m sure they’d be interested.
SEM GUY on Feb 24, 2006 at 4:09 pm
I too think its a good idea but cant depending on breadth of interpretation couldnt it severly hamper their revenues?
Look at the Nextag’s and Shozilla’s of the world what does it do to their platforms?
What about the automobile industry what does this do or not do for the Cars.com’s and Autobytel’s of the industry who rely wholly on this business activity?
Ebuzzmaster on Feb 24, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Finally! A search engine is taking an ethical standpoint on the issue. This is the only space where trademark infringement has not only been tolerated, but has become extremely profitable for shady operations. Those of us who avoid this dirty practice (bidding on competitors’ brands), will finally have our come-uppance. If one has spent years (not to mention millions) on building a brand name, why should some fly-by-night company profit from it?
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