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The state of Utah passed the Trademark Protection Act, designed to protect companies that register their trademarks in Utah.
Essentially, the law creates a database of trademarked terms, and prevents online advertisers from using those terms as keywords.
In other words, if you’re Mazda, you can’t buy paid advertisements from Google that will show up when users search for Pontiac.
Photo by Utah.gov.















James on April 12th, 2007 at 10:11 am
The only problem with such a law is when a brand starts to become part of the everyday vernacular such as “BandAid”. It’s quite likely that google users may search for the generic term, using it in the broader sense, and may want to get the broader result.
On the other hand, having sole advertising rights to the term BandAid gives Johnson and Johnson an advantage, which adds value to the concept of a trademark.
FranchiseBrief.com on April 12th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
James, I agree but when someone looks for “starwood hotels” one shouldnt be allowed to buy this keyword to direct it to another website. It is just not fare. We were discussing this issue with my previous company.
Bill on April 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
What happens when shoe stores want to sell their Nike or Aididas or Puma shoes?