Google is planning to open up bidding on trademarked keywords to AdWords advertisers in June. It is rumored June 4th, companies will be able to bid on the brand names of their competition, which will heat up the sponsored listings throughout Google and lead to head to head battles in the SERPs over branded products, services and company names.
Google has also released a list of the countries and regions where they will not investigate the use of trademarked keywords.
The decision to implement this strategy is interesting on two ends. One is that with the economy still struggling and businesses opting not to participate in SEM that Google could be implementing this to get more revenue. Second they are obviously confident they are in a sound legal position.
So be prepared for June 4th as many companies will be throwing all caution to the wind to steal your customers.
