Trademarks gone to far!
Did you know that you cannot use the word “apple” in a Google ad for any reason? Even if you are advertising products made from or with the actual fruit? Did you know you cannot use the word “philosophy” either? (that’s the one I got dinged on) In fact, here are a few more common, every-day words that cannot be used in Google ads because someone owns a trademark on the word:
palm
swatch
fossil
tide
crucial
latitude
sloe gin
mulberry
pirate
olympic
smooth
juicy
leap
freedom
citizen
coach
core
crank
pilot
Look very carefully at that list. Every word in that list can be found in any English dictionary and have been part of the language for (in most cases) hundreds of years. How can we even remotely interpret trademark law to allow companies – who took the risk by using common words as their names – a blanket ownership of these terms? Trademark is a narrowly defined right to exclusive use of a term or mark in conjunction with a specific area of business. It is not an exclusive right to use that word in all commercial endeavors!
I demand that we have our words back. We can’t let the land-grab of trademark continue unchecked. If so, we’ll eventually be forbidden to use these words in writing, emails, and even casual conversation!
UPDATE: After complaining, Google has re-approved my ads using the word “philosophy.” While I think that a system that, by default, bans the use of common English words due to tenuous claims of Trademark, allowing their use only after review, is a very flawed system, I do appreciate that I did not hit a stone wall at Google. I understand that they have a real issue here, but I believe that in the case of Trademark – especially in weak trademarks like common English words – the burden should be carried by the trademark holder, not the numerous other people using those common words innocently. The system is backwards.
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Some bad flash fiction:
The pilot had to seriously crank the yoke just to avoid crashing on the smooth shoreline. but despite his sweaty palm and pirate hook, he touched down safely in the tide. He had made a crucial mistake in calculating the latitude of the island, and now had a problem of olympic proportions. The leap from the small plane literally shook him to his core, and he landed with a thud in the sand. He realized he would be stuck on the island for a while, but his military training kicked in and he could see the face of his survival coach pushing him in drills. He had to eat and he had to drink. Near the beach, he found fresh water and juicy berries which he wrapped up in a swatch of fabric from his shirt. Combined with the bottle of sloe gin from the plane, he had a meal that would get him though until some adventurous citizen, out for a pleasure cruise, would eventually grant him his freedom. Either that, or he would become part of the permanent fossil record of the island. He popped a mulberry into his mouth and considered which outcome he would truely prefer.
on March 13, 2009 at 5:02 pm
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Where’d you get the list? Google supposedly protects its preclusion list.
on March 13, 2009 at 5:20 pm
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I’m sure they do – it seems to not be in their best interest to help you follow the rules, no matter what logic would dictate.
This is an excerpt from a longer list that’s put together via “crowdsourcing” if you will – people who have had disapproved ads submitting the words they got dinged on.
I have not vetted this list – something I should have mentioned above. However, I don’t doubt most of them as they are trademarks in certain narrow fields of business.
I’m not going to link to the site here (though you can find it easily enough with – you guessed it – Google itself) because I suspect, if it gets too much coverage then Google will find some way to make life hard on the poster. If you find a page with a big table of trademarked words along with a smaller table of prohibited content words, you’ve probably found it.