google going to court!!!

[fozzy]

way over my head this one!



http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/lastminute+prepared+to+sue+google/2123347

 

[Bruce Wayne]

This has been brewing for a few weeks. Prior to Monday if someone searched for a trademarked term, say Sony, the only company that could run ads for that term would be the trademark owner (Sony).

Post May 5th that will change and anyone can run ads for trademarked terms. Personally I support it. Whilst obviously passing off is not a good thing, if you run comparison services or reviews etc. you can now advertise them.

 

[fozzy]

This has been brewing for a few weeks. Prior to Monday if someone searched for a trademarked term, say Sony, the only company that could run ads for that term would be the trademark owner (Sony).

Post May 5th that will change and anyone can run ads for trademarked terms. Personally I support it. Whilst obviously passing off is not a good thing, if you run comparison services or reviews etc. you can now advertise them.

so i could run an ad on a sony search saying my products are better?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

In theory yes. From a user point of view it has benefits though. Lets say you as a user wanted to buy a Wii. You could search for Wii at the moment and the only ads would be from Nintendo because they own the trademark. From May 5th you can see ads not only from retailers selling Wii but price comparison sites letting you find the cheapest place to buy a Wii.

 

[fozzy]

In theory yes. From a user point of view it has benefits though. Lets say you as a user wanted to buy a Wii. You could search for Wii at the moment and the only ads would be from Nintendo because they own the trademark. From May 5th you can see ads not only from retailers selling Wii but price comparison sites letting you find the cheapest place to buy a Wii.

so could i say that im selling wii's but realy im not? and just pay for the ad to get traffic?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Yes and no. Each place in the ad listings costs you money paid on a per click basis. It works on an auction basis and placings in the ad listings are determined based on a number of factors, including amount bid, click through rate (ie attractiveness/quality of the ad) and quality of the page you're sending visitors to. This last factor would be where your idea falls down because it's not uncommon for Google to slap a minimum bid fee of a couple of pounds per click on sites with poor content.

So if you're sending visitors to an unrelated page it'd soon end up costing you a pretty penny and it would be uneconomical for you.

 

[fozzy]

so i could have the best site going but still no wii's to sell then!

cuz when people prder them we go "out of stock"

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I'm not 100% sure what you're saying so apologies if this is wide of the mark.

Scenario 1: You're a great site that sells lots of Wii's. Your site is clearly all about Wii's with lots of info, reviews, etc. Google will be quite happy with your site but you'll still be buying potential customers you can't service as you won't have the stock. Outcome: you lose money.

Scenario 2: You have a site about Britney Spears but want to bid on Wii trademarks. Your site is clearly nothing to do with Wii, so Google will not like you and charge you an awful lot to bid on Wii trademark terms. Outcome: you lose money.

 

[fozzy]

I'm not 100% sure what you're saying so apologies if this is wide of the mark.

Scenario 1: You're a great site that sells lots of Wii's. Your site is clearly all about Wii's with lots of info, reviews, etc. Google will be quite happy with your site but you'll still be buying potential customers you can't service as you won't have the stock. Outcome: you lose money.

Scenario 2: You have a site about Britney Spears but want to bid on Wii trademarks. Your site is clearly nothing to do with Wii, so Google will not like you and charge you an awful lot to bid on Wii trademark terms. Outcome: you lose money.

oh ok mate!! was just bored and thought id see were this could go thats all!

 

[zero]

I'm not 100% sure what you're saying so apologies if this is wide of the mark.

Scenario 1: You're a great site that sells lots of Wii's. Your site is clearly all about Wii's with lots of info, reviews, etc. Google will be quite happy with your site but you'll still be buying potential customers you can't service as you won't have the stock. Outcome: you lose money.

Scenario 2: You have a site about Britney Spears but want to bid on Wii trademarks. Your site is clearly nothing to do with Wii, so Google will not like you and charge you an awful lot to bid on Wii trademark terms. Outcome: you lose money.

Seems like a sensible idea to me.