For those who are familiar with the limitations of Google Grants, the fact that Trademark Policies, do in fact, apply as in the mainstream is good to know. As more and more Google Grants are registered and being optimized, the "piggy-backing" game of using other trademark names to drive more traffic begins. Now, obviously this is only effective for the Text Ads and not the keywords, as anyone can bid on the trademarked keyword term.
How Effective is the Trademark Protection for Non profits?
Very Effective! Many Non profits, most likely at the National level, will benefit the most from this policy, as smaller 501c3's may not have the branding awareness and volume to support it. It is also a good idea to have the Nonprofit's name protected to ensure that their hard earned integrity is not compromised. This would be especially important to prevent any possible false Political or Religious advocacy based claims which could hurt the organization, especially since they are a registered Google Grantee. I would also keep in mind that that Policy will also affect any commercial/mainstream Adwords advertisers from using their name without the Nonprofit's consent.
What is Google's Trademark Policy?
According to Google, "Google takes allegations of
trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we're happy
to investigate matters raised by trademark owners. Also, our Terms and
Conditions with advertisers prohibit intellectual property infringement
by advertisers and make it clear that advertisers are responsible for
the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that
they choose to use in those advertisements.
The trademark owner is not required to be a Google AdWords
advertiser in order to send a complaint. Please also note that any such
investigation will only affect ads served on or by Google. In the case
of an AdSense for Domains trademark complaint, an investigation will
affect only the domain names of sites in our AdSense for Domains
program."
What Does Google Say About This?
Well, as a SemGeek who has played in both For Profit and now Nonprofit world, the Google Trademark Policy is an obvious area that needed more clarification for the Google Grants Program. So, when I posted the question on the Google Grants Forum, this is the response I received.
"This is a great question, when it comes to AdWords trademark policy, non profits have the same rights as commercial and paying AdWords advertisers. As a courtesy, we will investigate complaints of unauthorized use of a trademark in the ad text."
In conclusion:
If you are a Google Grantee and want to protect your hard earned Trademark Name, I encourage you to visit the the Google AdWords Trademark Authorization Process or if you know of anyone infringing on your Trademark, also visit the AdWords Trademark Complaint Procedure page. Protecting your Nonprofit and even For Profit company is a crucial to ensuring your brand integrity.
