-
Law Firms suing other firms for using their competitors’ names in ad keywords
This is bonkers. I need to be careful, so please don't ask me any identifying information, but a huge firm is suing a much smaller firm for using the larger firm's name in their keywords, so entirely on the backend. This has nothing to do with me, as I am not currently running Google ads at all. I actually start my strategy tomorrow and was warned not to use competitor names on the backend. I said, "whelp, well there goes a big part of my strategy…" I have to exclude my competitor's names from my ad strategy because of this nonsense.
The small firm didn't use the competitor's name in their ads or anything that would violate copyright. For those who may be unclear, adding a word to the keyword list is telling Google that their ad can run if/when someone searches for their competitor. This is incredibly common in law firm SEO strategies. Basically, someone from the larger firm was Googling themselves, and saw a sponsored ad for the smaller firm and saw red and assumed that the smaller firm engaged in this practice. To be clear, the smaller firm isn't running ads at all right now, but they did outsource their ads last year so they have no idea if they even engaged in this. They are working on getting statements from the third party seo marketing company.
This is honestly so selfish and shitty because I know for a fact the larger firm engaged in the same practice when they were building their SEO and now they are the most dominant dogs in town, and they are trying to close the practice to up and comers. Any thoughts? Any advice? Has this happened to anyone else? TIA
-
1 Reply
-
I thought this happens all the time. Big companies spend huge money on ads protecting their own name in search.
-
Quite often, the intent is to just scare smaller competitors away as the legal process is costly and lengthy.
-
It for sure isn’t illegal. Likely just a bully tactic, sending a message. Or incompetence.
Log in to reply.