Is this legal?

[Inner Athlete]

Hi guys..

I'm starting a new website and need to know whether or not it's legal to go after certain keywords?

For example, would there be a problem with me going after, just say.. nike? Not that I'm going for that keyword but you get my drift.

If another company ran a search for their business name (keyword) and saw my website showing up on page one could they report me to google?

Appreciate any info..

[Steve Crooks]

You are probably a lot better off asking a lawyer this question. My unqualified understanding of this is that you shouldn't generally use a brand name in a domain and perhaps even a URL (as a filename).

I also believe that there is no problem writing about a brand in your content and if Google index and rank your webpage as a consequence then all is good. However, it may be a grey area if it came to it and you were asked to cease and desist if they could prove you used SEO to rank for their brand name.

Like I said at the start, this is a question for a lawyer but this is how I understand it.

Originally Posted by Inner Athlete

Hi guys..

I'm starting a new website and need to know whether or not it's legal to go after certain keywords?

For example, would there be a problem with me going after, just say.. nike? Not that I'm going for that keyword but you get my drift.

If another company ran a search for their business name (keyword) and saw my website showing up on page one could they report me to google?

Appreciate any info..

[reg45]

Its fine , nothing illegal about it.

[noble]

Perfectly legal.

On the other hand if you used "nike" in your domain name that is not okay and if you got really back and they took the time you would have to forfeit that domain.

YouTube is one company most commonly known for enforcing this practice.

[Inner Athlete]

Its a bit of a shady area alright. Don't know if it would be worth the hasssle of getting ranked and then have said company trying to take me down.

Be interesting to hear what the other warriors have to say on this matter.

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

You are probably a lot better off asking a lawyer this question. My unqualified understanding of this is that you shouldn't generally use a brand name in a domain and perhaps even a URL (as a filename).

I also believe that there is no problem writing about a brand in your content and if Google index and rank your webpage as a consequence then all is good. However, it may be a grey area if it came to it and you were asked to cease and desist if they could prove you used SEO to rank for their brand name.

Like I said at the start, this is a question for a lawyer but this is how I understand it.

[Inner Athlete]

Its alright to say that until a major company comes knocking on your door.

What then?

Originally Posted by reg45

Its fine , nothing illegal about it.

[Inner Athlete]

Originally Posted by noble

Perfectly legal.

On the other hand if you used "nike" in your domain name that is not okay and if you got really back and they took the time you would have to forfeit that domain.

YouTube is one company most commonly known for enforcing this practice.

Don't know about that mate. Last thing I need is get ranked and then start having problems.

[corycrabb]

Simply ask my friend, thats all you must do.. If you want to use a companies name in your domain simply ask.. As far as key words are concerned you can use any key word you like that is perfectly fine..Domain names on the other hand is a little different story.

[Inner Athlete]

I am asking....

I don't want to use it in the domain name. I already have that purchased. I was just trying to figure out if its okay to use the keyword or not?

Suppose I end up ranking 2nd on the first page. I'm sure the company in qusetion would not be happy with that, right?

[Steve Crooks]

I have an example of something similar that actually happened to me.. A few years back I was using adwords to make some affiliate sales for a product. I started making a fair bit of money for one particular keyword which was included the name of the company and the product. After a week or two I received a message from this company that I was not allowed to use this keyword for bidding on and I had to stop.

Anyway, I then created a website and managed to get into Google's top 10 for that particular keyword and was busy making affiliate sales as a result. This lasted for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden my site was dumped from Google for apparently no reason. Completely deindexed and it never returned. This is the first and only time this has happened to me. Maybe it is a coincidence but I am convinced that Google received some sort of complaint and didn't want the hassle.

Having said that though, Google is overflowing with webpages that are ranked for all sorts of brand names but I guess it depends on the brand at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by Inner Athlete

I am asking....

I don't want to use it in the domain name. I already have that purchased. I was just trying to figure out if its okay to use the keyword or not?

Suppose I end up ranking 2nd on the first page. I'm sure the company in qusetion would not be happy with that, right?

[Inner Athlete]

Steve, I've heard a similar story.

I don't think it would be worth the hassle to build a website that google could simply remove some days because of another companies complaints.

The brand I'm talking about here is well known and I mean well known so maybe I'll I'd be better of going after different keywords.

I'd still like to hear what the warriors have to say..

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

I have an example of something similar that actually happened to me.. A few years back I was using adwords to make some affiliate sales for a product. I started making a fair bit of money for one particular keyword which was included the name of the company and the product. After a week or two I received a message from this company that I was not allowed to use this keyword for bidding on and I had to stop.

Anyway, I then created a website and managed to get into Google's top 10 for that particular keyword and was busy making affiliate sales as a result. This lasted for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden my site was dumped from Google for apparently no reason. Completely deindexed and it never returned. This is the first and only time this has happened to me. Maybe it is a coincidence but I am convinced that Google received some sort of complaint and didn't want the hassle.

Having said that though, Google is overflowing with webpages that are ranked for all sorts of brand names but I guess it depends on the brand at the end of the day.

[noble]

This is different. You CANNOT use trademarks in AdWords ads without permission. This is due to people who were affiliates yet representing themselves as the actual business (mainly amazon affiliates). You can use them in the body of your site, what if you are selling a nike shoe or writing a review. It is fine.

You also cannot put the trademark in your actual domain name that you register. Just ranking it on Google though there is nothing wrong with that. People are entitled to free speech, you could even write horror stories about a company and rank for that for the keyword which is just the companies name. There is absolutely nothing illegal about what you are talking about.

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

I have an example of something similar that actually happened to me.. A few years back I was using adwords to make some affiliate sales for a product. I started making a fair bit of money for one particular keyword which was included the name of the company and the product. After a week or two I received a message from this company that I was not allowed to use this keyword for bidding on and I had to stop.

Anyway, I then created a website and managed to get into Google's top 10 for that particular keyword and was busy making affiliate sales as a result. This lasted for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden my site was dumped from Google for apparently no reason. Completely deindexed and it never returned. This is the first and only time this has happened to me. Maybe it is a coincidence but I am convinced that Google received some sort of complaint and didn't want the hassle.

Having said that though, Google is overflowing with webpages that are ranked for all sorts of brand names but I guess it depends on the brand at the end of the day.

[Steve Crooks]

You haven't read what I actually wrote.. I created a website and got a page ranked for the keyword phrase I was doing well with using Adwords. I didn't have that keyword in the domain name. I am well aware of trademarks and Adwords, especially after what happened all those years ago.

Originally Posted by noble

This is different. You CANNOT use trademarks in AdWords ads without permission. This is due to people who were affiliates yet representing themselves as the actual business (mainly amazon affiliates). You can use them in the body of your site, what if you are selling a nike shoe or writing a review. It is fine.

You also cannot put the trademark in your actual domain name that you register. Just ranking it on Google though there is nothing wrong with that. People are entitled to free speech, you could even write horror stories about a company and rank for that for the keyword which is just the companies name. There is absolutely nothing illegal about what you are talking about.

[jhonsean]

For me its ok to use the keyword but the content must be in your taste to make the site more competitive than others.

[GirlyGurl]

Originally Posted by noble

This is different. You CANNOT use trademarks in AdWords ads without permission. This is due to people who were affiliates yet representing themselves as the actual business (mainly amazon affiliates). You can use them in the body of your site, what if you are selling a nike shoe or writing a review. It is fine.

You also cannot put the trademark in your actual domain name that you register. Just ranking it on Google though there is nothing wrong with that. People are entitled to free speech, you could even write horror stories about a company and rank for that for the keyword which is just the companies name. There is absolutely nothing illegal about what you are talking about.

I have a review website. A former advertiser (they decided to dismantle their affiliate program) asked me via email to remove the review that I wrote of their website. The review is positive, because I genuinely like their service, and is completely original (I know because I spent a few hours researching and writing it). In their email, they used the word "Trademark" twice. I'm a bit flabbergasted, to say the least, but afraid to get into some legal battle, so I'll probably give in. I can only assume they want me to remove it because it shows up #1 in google when you type in their business name with the word "review" after it. As their affiliate program is gone, I took their links off and put a banner link to a competitor of theirs on the page. Is that wrong? The link clearly states the other companies name, so its not like it should confuse anyone. But, like any marketer, the link is to a company that is in the same business as them (targeted to my visitors). I even put a disclaimer on the review that I am not affiliated with their company, and that the review was simply my opinion. I don't see how this could be considered a trademark violation when there are reviews all over the internet and people create entire websites to bash one company. Anyone heard of this?? I'd love to hire an attorney to prove I'm right, but its this one review is definitely NOT worth it.

[yukon]

Don't use the keyword in the EMD, instead rank an internal page that includes the keyword, example: hxxp://www.netphones.com/iphone4/

Treat that internal page as your index page, you could even redirect your index back to the internal page If you wanted, assumes the internal page (/iphone4/) is the sales page.

I think most of the time a brand won't get pissed off until they see your site out ranking them in the SERPs for their own brand name (keyword).

[GirlyGurl]

Originally Posted by yukon

Don't use the keyword in the EMD, instead rank an internal page that includes the keyword...

Treat that internal page as your index page, you could even redirect your index back to the internal page If you wanted, assumes the internal page (/iphone4/) is the sales page.

I think most of the time a brand won't get pissed off until they see your site out ranking them in the SERPs for their own brand name (keyword).

Totally! That is what I'm doing with the page in question. I use the product name in the directory....