le Ads has changed the way it handles trademark complaints.

Google will no longer consider trademark complaints against advertisers or ads in general, but only those that are specific to a particular advertiser. Google Ads is launching its global Trademark Policy on July 24.

Google has notified advertisers of these trademark policy updates today.

Why do we care? Google says this policy update will make resolutions easier and faster, and reduce restrictions across the industry. This can be frustrating to advertisers.

Why is the policy changing? The current Google Ads Trademarks Policy allows all ads within an industry to be blocked from using trademarked materials when complaints are made. The result has been an over-flagging of ads and industry-wide blocking, which is a major problem for advertisers.

Google hopes that its new policy reduces these issues, and gives advertisers more transparency and clarity. Google’s updated trademark policy will also allow it to respond more quickly to trademark complaints from advertisers.

What Google has to say. According to a Google spokesperson, Search Engine Land:

• To address feedback from advertisers we are updating our Trademark Policy. We will now focus on complaints only against specific advertisers to simplify and accelerate resolution times as opposed to industry wide blocks which were prone for over-flagged.
• We believe that this update protects our partners from legitimate complaints, while still allowing consumers to find out about new products and services.

Timeline. Trademark restriction implemented prior to July 24, under the current policy, will continue to be applicable. Google will phase out these restrictions for the majority of advertisers over the next 12- 18 months.

This is the policy. Here you can find the Google Ads Trademarks Policy .

The article Google Ads changes how it handles trademark complaints first appeared on Search Engine Land.