Google’s removal of trademark bidding restrictions is set to happen on the 5th of May, 2008.

What does this mean?

Up until now it has been possible to prevent advertisers bidding on singular trademarked terms. Advertisers choosing to bid on such terms are currently asked to remove their ads allowing the trademark owner to be the lone advertiser for their particular keyword.

Whats changing?

Essentially Google are removing this restriction allowing free bidding on all trademarked single terms. This removal of restrictions is set to be only in the UK and Ireland (not the rest of Europe) and is likely to cause havoc for those UK businesses currently benefiting from the restrictions.

Why?

This Google policy has been in place in the US and Canada since 2004. In Google’s own statement:

“A good proportion of users in the US and Canada have been clicking on competitor ads even when searching against trademarked terms, suggesting that they find the greater number of ads relevant and helpful when researching or making a purchase.”