If you have noticed, Mudah (Malaysia's fast-rising eMarketplace) is aggressively buying a whole lot of keywords in Google Adwords. This could be the main reason why they are one of the most visited sites in Malaysia within a few months of launching.

For example, when you google keywords like nikon, samsung or proton, Mudah's advertisement will appear in the search results page. Not only that, they even bid on their competitors' brand identity.

ebay...

lelong...


Buying competitor's trademarked keyword

More ironically, try google for pensonic and most likely you will get Panasonic's ads. Perhaps, Panasonic is eager to get back at Pensonic whom in the first place sort of imitates Panasonic's brand name.



So in this case, what action can be taken by Pensonic? According to Google's complaint procedure:

Google encourages trademark owners to resolve their disputes directly with the advertisers. However, Google is willing to perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints.

Why Google allows trademarked keywords bidding?

I guess this eliminates tedious work of keeping track on all the trademarks in the world. Most importantly Google could generate more profit with both trademark owners and advertisers outbidding each other tends to send keyword prices skyrocketing.

Of course, there are various opinions on allowing trademarked keywords bidding, but I thought that is a fair marketing competition giving consumers options and comparisons, as long as it is not deceptive advertising.

If you are a brand owner, how do you protect your brand from this open competition? Consider reading this.