According to a story in The Australian, Acer and Toshiba are complaining that Dell is using their company names as keywords in its current Google Pay-Per-Click advertising.
Dell rejects the allegation and says it is only using generic terms in its campaign.
Google Pay-Per-Click advertising appears on Google search results pages and on (high quality :-) content pages such as this.
The website you are reading now is made possible by Google AdWords revenues which accrue to mobilised when you click on the Google text ads that appear here.
Acer and Toshiba marketing personnel both allege that the current Dell AdWords campaign uses the words "Toshiba notebook" and "Acer notebook" as keyword triggers for their advertising.
This is against Google's terms and conditions if the trademark holder (Toshiba and/or Acer) indicate to Google they want their trademark protected.
Acer executives claimed this is the second time Dell has used its company name as a keyword trigger on Google AdWords. The first time was earlier this year until Acer's lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter and subsequently logged its brand with Google.
Acer Marketing Manager Raymond Vardenega is so incensed he is threatening legal action against Dell under the Trade Practices Act unless it ends its campaign.
However, Dell has denied the claims, saying it has only registered the keywords "notebook" and "laptop" (not "Acer notebook"). A spokesperson for the company said it had previously conducted "trial bidding on competitor key terms", but found it didn't produce very cost-effective results..
"Dell had only ever used advertising that is ethical," said the spokesperson.
"Dell has purchased the terms laptop and notebook. It is only the generic product term that is generating the Dell link," she said.
Toshiba has not threatened legal action, but Toshiba marketing manager Lesley MacLennan said the practice is "very unethical and very confusing for consumers."
A spokesperson for Google declined to comment specifically on the incident, but the company said it would protect registered trademarks.
"When we receive a complaint from a trademark owner, our review is limited to ensuring that the advertisements at issue are not using a term corresponding to the trademarked term in the ad content or as a keyword trigger," he told The Australian.
"If they are, we will require the advertiser to remove the trademarked term from the ad content or keyword list and will prevent the advertiser from using the trademarked term in the future."
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