Effective September 14, 2010, Google will allow online advertisers running their advertisements in Canada to use a third-party trademark in their advertisement text even if they do not own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.
The policy change will affect sellers and resellers of component, replacement or compatible parts bearing the third-party trademark as well as informational websites. For example, resellers of jeans will be able to highlight the actual brands they sell in their online advertisement text.
Trademark owners will be able to use Google’s complaint procedure to police uses of trademarks from unauthorized resellers.
The policy change has affected U.S. advertisers since June 2009. In addition to Canada, the policy will also be extended to the U.K. and Ireland.
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