In contrast to other countries, it is not allowed in most European countries to use other company’s brand names or trademarks as keywords in Google AdWords campaigns. So if you are selling Canon cameras, you are not allowed to use the name Nikon to trigger your AdWord ad. Because this was seen as a violation of the trade-mark laws.
In Google’s opinion this rule was never in the best interest of their users. Thinking people would be best served when they are able to gather as much information as possible. Including information about (in this case) competitor products.
Therefore the ban on using third party brand names was already raised in the United States and Canada (in 2004) and in The United Kingdom and Ireland (in 2008).
The European Court of Justice has now ruled that the use of third party brand names is not a violation of the trade-mark laws. Google has therefore decided to change their policy regarding the use of brand names in the rest of Europe too. That means that as per September 14 everybody is allowed to use third party brand names as keywords to trigger AdWords ads.
Since last year Google has allowed some advertisers (resellers and sellers of components and replacement parts) in the United States to use third party trademarks in the text of their AdWords ads too. Also if they do not have an explicit approval for the use of the trademark.
According to Google this change has proven to be useful and this policy will therefore now be extended to Canada, the UK and Ireland.
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