

Ask HN: Competitor putting Google ads against my company name - hnfwerr

I have a startup that has been in business for about a year. In the last few days I started to notice that a competitor put some Google ads when you search for my company name (or company domain).<p>What is worse is that those ads are a bit agressive. Like "the truth about company X" or "why X is a not the best solution for you", all linking to their pages where they try to sell their stuff.<p>Is that allowed by Google? I couldn't find a way to flag/report those. What would you guys do?<p><i>I know it is a good sign that we are growing, but could influence some customers against us by reading it.<p></i>*using a thrown away account.<p>Any help is appreciated...<p>thanks!
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netcan
This is common practice. Google's policy is different depending on country and
it changes pretty frequently. There are two issues here: Appearing on searches
containing your company name and using your company name in ads.

The latter has a better chance of being removed upon complaint, especially if
the landing pages don't have anything to do with your company.

In some countries (not the US, UK), Google usually acts in favour of the
trademark owner and pulls both ads and keywords upon request.

You can make the complaint here:
[http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...](http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50003)
Send it by mail or fax as well.

If they're doing negative advertising, you could also try going to them
directly (or maybe via a lawyer). It could easily be a 3rd party agency
writing these ads and the company management might be embarrassed to be
caught.

~~~
hnfwerr
Common practice? I did a lot of search for popular companies / domains and
didn't see such an add.

I really thought it wasn't allowed, but I guess I will try to fax/mail a
complain...

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BobbyH
Have you tried contacting the competitor and asking them nicely to stop? In my
experience with this sort of thing, a polite call or email is most effective.
If you email, make sure that what you wrote won't be embarrassing if they
publish your email.

If they are intransigent, explain that you understand but, just so they know,
you will be pursuing a Tit for Tat strategy:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat> Communication really helps when
you're tit-for-tatting, so contacting them will help on that front. If you are
all relatively small, there are no antitrust issues at all.

If you are nervous about contacting them, you can pursue a tit for tat
strategy anyway. To make it clear what you're doing, use the exact same copy
that they do. If you want to be really direct, write a message to them in the
ad copy.

In any case, you said they're bigger than you, so you'll actually get more
leads from doing this than they get from keywords on your brand.

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dreamux
Your best bet might be to register your trademark with doubleclick, then lodge
a complaint against your competitor using your product/company name in their
advertisements.

Try here:
[http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...](http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6118)

~~~
hnfwerr
We don't own the trademark (I mean, we never registered it officially). Since
we are small, we are putting our money on things that we thought mattered
more.

I guess we will have to register it.

thanks for the tips.

~~~
beagle3
In the US, registering a trademark (which you can easily do yourself - no need
to pay a $300/hour lawyer) costs $75, or at least used to last time I needed
to. How much is it in the UK that you're saving that money?

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danpat
We looked into this a while back, we're in a niche electronics market. Similar
situation.

Basically, if they're using a trademarked term in their ad, then you'll have
grounds for protest. Using your company name in the ad that is displayed is
generally against the rules.

If they simply have an ad for their company show up for a keyword search for
your company name, then that's generally OK, they're not displaying your
trademark.

Examples:

    
    
      You: WidgetCo
      Them: WidgetsRUS
    
      keyword: widgetco
    
      OK Ad by them: We make the best widgets ever!  Try us today!
      Bad ad by them: WidgetCO sucks, WidgetsRUS are way better!

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hnfwerr
Btw, that company is actually bigger than ours and has been in business
longer.

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
Here's a long shot but it might work. If the company is a dominant player in
the field you might be able to intimidate them with a lawyer's letter that
insists they cease and desist from anti-competitive practices (i.e. that could
bring scrutiny from regulatory bodies).

IANAL so get some real legal advice before pursuing this angle.

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cvinson
Happened to me. Worse, competitors started copying my exact Adwords text and
headlines as well.

I was able to remove the ads that included our trademark fairly quickly by
contacting Google.

For the rest, you just have to start your own campaign against them. Since our
own company's keywords are pretty low search competition they are extremely
cheap to bid on. When competitors see that you are bidding against them, they
might back off (they did in my case).

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kingofspain
My ads weren't even allowed to go live until I removed the word 'apple' from
the heading. It was auto-flagged as infringing. This is UK so maybe they treat
marks differently here?

~~~
hnfwerr
That's what I thought. But I couldn't find a simple way to report... From the
other comments I guess I will have to fax/mail a complain to them.

