Google allows use of Trademarks

[Discovery]

If you happen to be running for office that is.

Go to Google and do an exact search for "Lehman Brothers" or "merrill lynch".

The results I received were ads for Barack Obama and John McCain.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL THREAD - NO POLITICAL COMMENTS.

The point is these are both widely recognized highly valued brands and trademarked names. Yet these two advertisers are allowed to advertise on them? WHY? Because they are Not-for-profit? Special rights for political campaigns?

Ownership of Site and Trademarks
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. owns and maintains this site. "Lehman Brothers" is the trade name for a globally diverse group of affiliates and subsidiaries of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (hereinafter referred to collectively as "Lehman Brothers"). The trademarks, logos and service marks displayed at this site are registered trademarks of Lehman Brothers and others. Nothing at this site shall be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any image, trademark, logo or service mark at the site. No act of downloading or otherwise copying from this site will transfer title to any software or material at this site to you. Anything that you transmit to this site becomes the property of Lehman Brothers, may be used by Lehman Brothers for any lawful purpose, and is further subject to disclosure as deemed appropriate by Lehman Brothers, including to any legal or regulatory authority to which Lehman Brothers is subject. Lehman Brothers reserves all rights with respect to copyright and trademark ownership of all material at this site, and will enforce such rights to the full extent of the law.

I think the call to serve America may have more benefits to us advertisers than we may have seen at first glance. I'm going to run for any city office up for election every year and run my ads on every trademarked term possible.

Another reason to love politicians.

Discovery

[TigerWoodsOfSEM]

I couldn't replicate your results. Were the ads using the TM names in their descriptions or simply showing up for the queries? Trademark policies enable ads to appear for the TM queries but not necessarily use TM names in the descriptions.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by Discovery

...Go to Google and do an exact search for "Lehman Brothers" or "merrill lynch". The results I received were ads for Barack Obama and John McCain.....

Err.. not true for me. I got results for Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, as expected.

[Discovery]

Did the same searches today, "Lehman Brothers" produced only one ad for CNBC.

The others produced ads for McCain. The Obama ads did not show this time.

In all cases the TM term is within the title of the ad and not in the description.

Did the Obama SEM read this thread?

Discovery

[Mel66]

Originally Posted by Discovery

Did the same searches today, "Lehman Brothers" produced only one ad for CNBC.

The others produced ads for McCain. The Obama ads did not show this time.

In all cases the TM term is within the title of the ad and not in the description.

Did the Obama SEM read this thread?

Discovery

I'm seeing the same as you. I wonder if these ads are using KW insertion and are just flying under Google's radar at the moment. I especially think that's true b/c I'm seeing a rookie mistake in the McCain ad - it says "Merrill lynch" in the title, which tells me that someone set it up with {Keyword} instead of {KeyWord}.

Or maybe Obama's SEM did read this thread.