In what may be a response to Google allowing bidding on trademarked keywords, or merely for the purposes of preserving their trademark, Overstock.com has sent an email to their affiliates demanding that they stop bidding on Overstock’s trademarked keywords.
Andy Beal from the award winning Search Engine Lowdown posted an excerpt from the email that Overstock.com sent. The mailing states that, effective immediately, affiliates of Overstock are to cease their bidding on trademarked or trademark related keywords. Overstock.com included a list of example keywords that are forbidden:
overstock.com
overstock
overstocked.com
overstocks.com
over stock.com
overstock .com
overstockcom
over stock .com
overstock com
Concerning these and similar keywords, Overstock stated:
“If you are bidding on any of these types of keyword terms, please stop by Friday, June 11, 2004. Failure to do so will result in a temporary suspension from our Affiliate Program. Once you are placed on temporary suspension, you will be out of the Overstock.com Affiliate Program for 14 days and ineligible to receive any commissions on the Overstock.com sales you generate during this term. After the 14 day term, you will have the opportunity to opt back in to the Overstock.com Affiliate Program if you have complied with the above request. A second violation of this policy will result in permanent termination from our Affiliate Program.”
As stated earlier, this reaction could be due to Google allowance of bidding and the use of trademarked keywords within the United States and Canada. The following appears on Google’s Trademark Complaint Procedure page:
“When we receive a complaint from a trademark owner, we will only investigate whether the advertisements at issue are using terms corresponding to the trademarked term in the advertisement’s content. If they are, we will require the advertiser to remove the trademarked term from the content of the ad and prevent the advertiser from using the trademarked term in ad content in the future. Please note that we will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint.”
Google has had legal complaints filed against it because of their policy concerning trademarked keywords. A number of these suits have been filed in Europe. Ironically, Google’s policy outside of the US and Canada does not allow the use of trademarked words or phrases.
Within the North American border, you can bid on trademarked words for keyword purposes, however, they cannot be used for ad content. Outside of these borders, words and phrases that are trademarked cannot be used for keyword or ad content purposes.
Another possibility is that Overstock does not want affiliates to trade on their namesake. Overstock may be trying to prevent dilution of its trademarked phrases. By issuing guidelines to affiliates, Overstock is taking necessary steps to ensure that sites associated with them won’t be using their trademark to capture ad clicks and high SERP positions.
Thanks to Andy Beal for the scoop.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
