Trademarks: the Calm After the Storm

My ugly mug featured in this week's NMA in a follow-up article by Will Cooper about trademark bidding on Google.  It would seem that the hysteria is finally dying down as common-sense returns to the situation.

There has been quite a few, how shall I say, ill-thought-out statements about this whole thing.

One agency claimed it would cost advertisers millions of pounds, an outlandish figure plucked from thin air. 

Others spoke about advertisers forming "gentleman's agreements" not to bid on each others' trademarks. Any commercial lawyer could have told you that if companies collaborate to try to fix their costs, they are in danger of breaking competition law.

And those companies that are threatening to sue Google appear to be tiliting at windmills. 

When Google announced this policy change, I posted that advertisers shouldn't panic.  Hopefully soon we'll all be able to accept the new status quo and get back to driving better ROI from our search campaigns (including even the non-trademarked keywords).