Starting June 15th, resellers and information sites in the U.S. will be allowed to use trademarked terms in their ad text under certain conditions. Under the old guidelines only trademark owners and advertisers with explicit approval from the trademark owner have been allowed to use trademarked terms in the headline and description lines.

Here are the new guidelines for using a trademarked term, according to Google:

Under this policy, an advertiser will be allowed to use a trademarked term in the ad text when the ad uses a trademarked term and:

• Does so in a descriptive way, using the generic dictionary definition of the term
• Leads to a reseller or aggregator of that trademarked good or service
• Leads to a seller of components, replacement parts, or compatible products for that trademarked good or service
• Leads to an informational site about that trademarked good or service

Certain cases are specifically not allowed to use trademark terms in the ad text. These cases include:

• Ads or sites that sell or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods
• Ads or sites that primarily sell or facilitate the sale of competitive goods or services
• Ads or sites focused on criticism about the trademarked good or service
• Unclear ads or sites without substantial information

One other guideline Google mentions is that associated landing pages must sell the goods or services of the trademarked term, and in the case of informational sites they must be non-competitive.

Obviously Google is doing this to bring in even more revenue through Adwords. Being able to use trademarked terms will improve advertiser click-through-rates, and more clicks mean more money for Google. For advertisers it just means we will be able to create more specific and relevant text ads, thus improving quality. I still find the guidelines to be a little grey, especially for informational sites which are “focused on criticism,” so as long as your aren’t “focused” on it I guess you are good to go. Either way I am certain Google will be getting many complaints from trademark owners about sites trying to game the trademark guidelines. Now it’s time to find an account to take advantage of this new policy.