Bring on the trademarked keywords in the U.S. and Canada, says Microsoft AdCenter. A policy change, which takes effect March 3, means ads appearing on Bing and Yahoo will soon able to be triggered by trademarked keywords, though only authorized users can include trademarks in the text of their ads. The shift brings Microsoft AdCenter in line with Google’s policies on such matters.

“We want to make it easier for you to manage your search advertising campaigns,” said an e-mail sent by Microsoft to advertisers. “By aligning the adCenter trademark policy with the current industry standard, we hope to help simplify your marketing efforts across the various online advertising programs.”

Microsoft declined to discuss the change more fully.

The use of trademarks in search ad campaigns, either as keywords or as ad text, has been a controversial topic since the dawn of search marketing. Though Google is still fighting lawsuits on the subject, the company seems to feel confident that trademarks can legally be used in keyword targeting in the U.S. Google has changed its trademark policies over time, and now, Microsoft has followed Google’s lead, simplifying matters a bit for search marketers.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: Trademarks | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land and Executive Features Editor at Marketing Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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