Yahoo's definition of "Brand"

[Discovery]

We had a listing declined because it used a "brand" name as a keyword and the website didn't offer products or service from the supposed brand.

Get this the brand is "lower my bills".

A quick search of lower my bills on the USPTO shows that the registered trademark ONLY refers to the full text

Word Mark LOWERMYBILLS.COM

Yahoo, had better figure out how to determine what is a brand and what is not, otherwise we're ready to enforce our "brands"

reduce my debts
filing bankruptcy
debt reduction

Or how about

buy a computer
digital camera
can we get any more generic?

Just another reason, Yahoo pisses most of us off, is in second place and is ready to slip out of sight once MSN gets fully into the game.

[summerherekids]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention my friend.

I for one will insist that my site be immediately removed from yahoos index.

Who else is with me?

Yahoo will soon learn who they are dealing with.

[Discovery]

But only when it’s funny.

This is a real issue that needs to be clarified by Yahoo. Google requires companies to submit information regarding their trademarks and service marks before they enforce "brand" rules on keywords. They validate against the USPTO. In this case Yahoo obviously did not.

If you're new to advertising or run a small operation advertising summer camps for kids then there is little impact for not using brand names. So I understand SummerHereKids' naive statement. If you have an annual ad spend of over a million per client then you would know that clients get pretty upset when very generic and lucrative keyword terms become out of play.

My question is to the experienced marketers in the group. Have you run into this issue and or are you concerned about it. Did Yahoo give you a reasonable way to rectify the situation?

I am in touch with my rep, but I would like to hear what kind of treatment and resolutions my peers have received.

Thanks for your serious feedback.

[ElizabethReynolds]

Discovery,
I haven't had trademark issues, but I have been hit with the 'automatic filters' they've set up, which bounce back capitalisation changes I make in my ads. (they were made my a shady SEO)

I've also been having major problems getting YSM to tell me why my German ads are being disabled, there's nothing listed in "reason declined", and since I don't speak German, and our office over there has been less than easy to reach, I can't just infer what the problem might be...

sigh, if there is an SEO god they will make MSN popular and user friendly, like yesterday here kids.

[The Generator]

Generator sez: True. I have run into that same issue, among countless others on Yahoo Search. But Adwords has the same problem. It has occured on Adwords for me to type in a creative and see the "Brand name" or "No Words related to online gambling" [huh?!?] rejection notices and so on.

In Google's defense a rejection is usually brought upon by an automated screening function and can be bypassed by a command that temproarilly lets it go live until it is reviewed by a human editor. (Note: To clarify, my experience gives me the impression that all ads on YS are reviewed by human editors, sometimes haphazardly, before going live. On Adwords, all ads are first screened by automated software that doesn't pull too many uncalled for red flags; then they go live, and then they are reviewed by a human editor.)

So on YS, it's the human editors who give the rejection notice, many times not knowing much about the industry of the clients that give the ads they are reviewing.

When my company's a/c went to Diamond, I found that the level of customer service was actually ironically lower and the editors became more unreasonable. If you are contemplating a move to Diamond service, you may want to consider staying in Platnum.