Further to my piece about Apple going after web sites using “iPod” somewhere in their name, is the company Apple going after third party developers using Google AdWords? A piece in TidBITS (“Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords”) paints a worrying picture of trademark protection gone mad:
some recent unsettling events indicate that Apple may in fact be moving in the direction of preventing third-parties from using Apple trademarks in advertising. Last week, I received a confusing email message from Google AdWords Support, telling me that they had “disapproved” several of the ads I placed for “Take Control of Mac OS X Backups” because the ads used the trademarked term “Mac” in their text (there was no complaint about the fact that I was using “Mac” as one of the keywords that triggered my ads).
It’s a good piece, and errs on the side of caution as to Apple’s motives (suggesting it may be some over eager legal eagle.) But I do worry about this kind of thing. The developers of third party products for Apple have been instrumental in the company’s success, and this kind of misstep will damage their appetite to continue. Also, the non-response to this article by Apple PR is a familiar story and a disappointment. Contrary to what some folk have written I’m a huge fan of Apple’s products, but that’s not the point here. Every company needs to reach some basic standard of transparency and accountability, however great the stuff they put out.
Oh wonderful – Apple is starting to act like Microsoft.
Palm just did this too. Nearly all AdWords containing “Palm” or “Treo” were banned from Google this week.
Google requires an exception in writing from the trademark holder to override the ban.
There are 100,000 Palm developers, and 2 people there assigned to trademarks, so it’s not clear how realistic a written authorization may be.