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Competitor using our name deceptively
We have a direct competitor who is running a google ad that makes it so you search “our company” and their ad comes up with our company’s name as the title but the url is to their site. It’s not as a dig at us, it’s directly deceptive. Do we have any recourse without hiring a lawyer?
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1 Reply
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If your name is trademarked,… you can [report it via trademark](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en). You may need to report it a few times but it usually gets taken down.
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Why don’t you pick up the phone and see what the issue is? Sounds like the intelligent thing to do right? You’re talking lawyers when it could be a simple case of dynamic keyword insertion in the top and/or pinned headline.
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A lawyers is a bit extreme, as mentioned above, Google has a policy where you can’t use someone else’s trademark in your ad, so just report it and it should be taken down
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No because it’s allowed. They just targeted a keyword. If the landing page claims to be you then you can report it.
But you’re also breaking googles terms by fraudulently clicking on their ads.
If you see them doing something illegal, report it. As long as they aren’t claiming to be your business.
But Google allows you to bid on keywords.
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If you have a Trademark, you can just file a complaint with Google and they *should* disapprove the ad for Trademark issues
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Call them and ask them to knock it off.
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cease letter
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I guarantee they’re bidding on it as a keyword and using kw insertion in the ads. They probably don’t even realise it’s showing like that, as they would want to plead ignorance if you ever catch them doing it. I would honestly just get in touch and ask them to stop bidding on your brand terms. Or ask them to add your brand terms as a negative.
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Chances are that they aren’t doing it intentionally. I suggest contacting them directly to inform then about it.
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If you come across a competitor’s ad that infringes on your trademark or contains misleading information, you can report it to Google. Alternatively, you can reach out to your competitors directly and ask them to remove your company name from their ads. However, it’s important to note that your competitor may be using dynamic keyword insertion, which means they may not even be aware of the issue.
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If you aren’t trademarked as per recommendations below, you can have your lawyer send them a threatening cease and desist letter. That will often be enough to stop the activity. You can, of course, sue them and this sound like a pretty clear cut case of fraud.
If you are generally friendly with them, however, I would start by asking them nicely.
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1. Talk to them nicely. May not even know they’re doing it.
2. Talk to them less nicely, if they still refuse to take it down.Trying to get Google to do anything is largely going to be a waste of your time – they don’t care. Reporting ads just goes into the Google blackhole (unless you’re a tier 1 client spending millions of dollars in which case they’ll find the red carpet for you).
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