[mwrhel]

I'd like to know if there is a software tool that will allow me to monitor Google Adwords and Overture for when Affiliates abuse our trademark policy.

I work for a catalog company and we are having problems with our Affiliate partners bidding on our trademarked brand names in Google Adwords and Overture. From discussions with other catalogers, this seems to be a global issue. Like parasiteware is to affiliates, the trademark PPC issue is a similar thorn for catalogers. Many catalogers spend over 50 cents per catalog to print and mail these to prospects and customers. When catalog recipients then type the catalog name in a search engine and an affiliate gets a portion of the sale, it seems like they've somehow hijacked the order.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Trust]

Just tell your affiliate partners that you won't pay commissions on sales generated from them bidding on your tm brand names in Adwords or Overture. That's it.

It's your program and you can run it anyway you want and based on that affiliates can decide if they want to partner up with you or not.

[mwrhel]

You're correct, we can refuse to pay (which is one of the terms of our Affiliate program), but it is a constant monitoring process to watch for violators. Thus if I could locate a tool(s) to help identify when someone is bidding on a trademark name without having to manually watch the search sites.

[Jungleland]

Perhaps you could have some type of script written to download and scan google and overture pages. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult.

I think though that taking a hard stance would be beneficial, a one strike and you're out zero tolerance policy with forfeited commissions would be a good start. It seems harsh, but if you are dealing with people who knowingly violate your policy that is what they deserve.

[Clicks4Nut'n]

Matt,

One thing to keep in mind is that even if you prevent all affiliates from buying your name, not every person will click on your ad's because they're the only one's showing. Many merchants allow this type of bidding because they realize there is value in it for both sides.