Google Ads Drops Industry Large Blocks For Trademarks

Google is updated its Google Ads trademark policies to do away with the ability to have industry-wide blocks for trademarked terms. Instead, you will need to do this on the specific advertiser level.

Google said this will reduce over-flagging issues with ads when an advertiser might legitimately want to use a trademark term but Google Ads blocks them when maybe they shouldn’t. Google said this should simplify and speed up resolution times, as opposed to industry-wide blocks that were prone to over flagging.

The new trademark restrictions implemented prior to July 24, 2023 will be gradually phased out for most advertisers over the next 12-18 months.

Google said advertisers still must comply with the Google Ads misrepresentation policy and that 2022 alone, Google blocked or removed 142 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy. So Google will continue these efforts and even improve them.

Google told me they “believe this update best protects our partners with legitimate complaints while still giving consumers the ability to discover information about new products or services.”

Google does have a help document to help trademark. If a trademark owner submits a complaint to Google about the use of their trademark in Google Ads ads, Google will review it and restrict advertisers from using that trademark in their ads if they’re deemed to violate our policy. The form to submit a complaint is over here.

Trademark restrictions from Google’s old trademark enforcement process implemented prior to July 17 will continue to apply until they are lifted for most advertisers gradually throughout the next 12 months.

Here is the email Google is sending advertisers, via @PPCKirk:

Here is that text:

We are writing to inform you that we are updating the Google Ads Trademarks policy worldwide. This revision will impact how we continue to investigate the trademark complaint you currently have on file with Google. Beginning on July 24, 2023, we will accept and process trademark complaints only against specific advertisers and/or ads, rather than all advertisers in the trademark owner’s industry.

Google continues to invest significant resources to create and enforce effective advertiser policies to prevent abuse while enabling businesses of all sizes to thrive, as detailed in our most recent Ads Safety Report. In particular, advertisers must abide by the Google Ads Misrepresentation policy, which disallows ads or destinations that deceive users by excluding relevant product information or providing misleading information about products, services, or businesses (for example, brand-based abuse like phishing and fraud) . Overall, in 2022, we blocked or removed 142 million advertisements for violating our misrepresentation policy, and are constantly working to improve our detection and enforcement systems.

As part of the migration to a new policy enforcement system and as new submissions are made under the updated policy, trademark restrictions implemented prior to July 24, 2023 will be gradually phased out for most advertisers over the next 12-18 months. Visit the Google Ads Trademarks policy for more information.

Ginny Marvin from Google added a bit more:

Today, trademark owners can opt to apply the restriction to “all advertisers” in their industry or to specific advertisers. With this change, restrictions will only be applied to the specific advertisers identified by the trademark owner. It should make it faster & more efficient

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) June 8, 2023

We expect this to have a positive impact on advertisers & reduce overflagging. After the policy change takes effect, restrictions will only be applied against the specific advertisers identified by the trademark owner and found to be in violation of the policy.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) June 8, 2023

Do you think this is a good change?

It will be nice to not be flagged for generic ™’s of companies in completely different verticals

but I think that will be drastically outweighed by the additional work of scouring SERPs to try to catch every new advertisers using your ™. https://t.co/COdBrpBml5

— Greg (@PPCGreg) June 8, 2023

Under this new process, you’ll still be able to make complaints at the advertiser level. It should also reduce overflagging & trademark owners won’t need to constantly flag when they want to authorize new accounts (including their own) to use their trademark

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) June 8, 2023

Forum discussion at Twitter.