Trademarked Keywords at Google
If you run any sizable campaign you've no doubt run across certain words that Google rejected for use in your ad or in your keyword list. You might have requested an exception or simply moved on to another keyword or ad wording.
But what's really going on? We recently weren't allowed to used the word "drive" in a campaign ad for example. We figured the word "drive" was ubiquitous enough ... but not according to the Google censor-bots.
As with many business rules, the rules surrounding use of trademarked words originate in the court system. Google has chosen the most conservative response to most situations involving trademarks - from apparent court shock.
Trademark holders can request that their trademarks not appear in the headings or text of Google ads for campaigns that appear through AdSense. This is the primary source of these rejected keywords and ad copy.
Google will sell trademarked ad copy and keywords to rivals of the trademark holder. This was cleared previously as long as the keywords or ad copy do not cause confusion among searchers.
If you run into a block on using certain keywords or ad copy try disabling content network distribution to see if the system will then allow the denied words.
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