Can you use your competitor’s name in an adWords campaign?

A US based company has lost a court case against their main competitor regarding the use of keywords in an adWords campaign.

J G Wentworth, the market leader in buying settlement funding, claimed that their competitor’s purchase of the keyword “j g wentworth” violated the law on trademark use.

However, the court determined that as the trademark use was behind the scenes and not seen by the customer, it was acceptable usage.

There have been several similar court cases and the outcomes have been fairly evenly split so it isn’t clear cut by any means.

Google’s policy in Australia is to allow trademarks as keywords but not as ad text. The onus is on the advertiser to comply with the law.

The case was written about in this technology and marketing law blog.