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Trademarked keyword ads are now banned at Yahoo!
As if there weren’t enough limiting laws in our modern societies, trademarks are the new bane of the online world.
Most lawyers won’t say but the trademark protection craze has reached new heights. Some law firms are known to enforce trademarks with little or no restraint, let alone judgement, causing the general public to feel very uneasy at refering to trademarks, for justified fear of being sued for often grossly disproportionate damages.
It appears Yahoo! is joining the ever growing group of companies who steer clear from trademarks altogether for fear of vicious litigation. More to the point, Yahoo! has banned all bids on trademarked keywords and trademarked terms in a sweeping effort to fend off future legal fights.
The trademarked keyword ads ban is deemed to have started March 1st, 2006. As such, Yahoo! Search Marketing has already issued notifications regarding the new “editorial guidelines” every advertiser needs to follow.
Will other search engine choose to go down the “less likely to be litigated path” too? What about comparison shopping web sites? That’s not to mention the bustling domain name landing pages business.
In your opinion, is this the beginning of the “age of online paranoia” or the end of “reasonnable trademark use”? Either way, this Yahoo! decision, in many ways, spells the overwhelming victory of lawyers over common sense.
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