An article on Search Engine Land indicates that Google is to relax its trademark restrictions for AdWords advertisers across more countries. A Google representative is stated as saying that "As of June 4th, Google will no longer investigate complaints relating to the use of trademarks as keywords by AdWords advertisers. This means that in the affected regions, a company advertising on Google will be able to select trademarked terms as keywords, and a user searching with a trademarked keyword may see a greater number of relevant ads in the sponsored links section, giving them greater choice."

Google was already allowing this use of trademark bidding in North America and had also relaxed the rules for the UK and Ireland last year. This new move will mean that advertisers will now be able to bid against trademarked terms as a keyword, if desired. Google says that their aim is "to provide our users with the most relevant information, from both search results and advertising. We are making this change because we want to give users greater choice and to help them make informed decisions."

There will clearly be implications with this change, both for advertisers wishing to bid against trademarked terms as well as those companies wishing to protect their trademarks within the Google search results.