When it comes to protecting and defending your trademarks, a fundamental part is identifying just who is bidding on them.  The purpose of this course is to teach you the steps necessary to make this determination.  Each of the “Big Three” Paid Search Engines are similar enough that most of these processes work across all of them.  However, there is a key difference between Google, MSN and Yahoo.

At this time, Google does not encode the Destination URL of AdWords.  Meaning, it is possible for you to ‘extract’ the Destination URL of the ad and conduct an investigation without generating a CPC charge for whomever is paying for the ad.  Yahoo and MSN do encode the Destination URLs of their Paid Search ads.  As a consequence, any Clickstream Investigation techniques WILL create a CPC charge.  As such, we encourage everyone performing such investigations to take care to limit this effect on compliant Affiliates and Internet Marketers.  For this reason, our examples in this course will focus on Google.

Take the example of bidding on ‘ebay’ on Google.  As we can see, there are three Paid Search ads, all indicated by the “Sponsored Link(s)” designation.  For the first step, move your mouse over the ad you want to investigate and click the Right-Mouse-Button.  From the menu that opens, for Firefox, choose “Copy Link Location“, and for Internet Explorer, choose “Copy Shortcut“.

Open a text editor, such as Notepad, WordPad, Microsoft Word, etc, and Paste the Link/Short cut.  Towards the very end, you will find the string q= followed by a URL, an example of which is seen below.

The URL is the destination URL for the AdWord, meaning, if you were to click on the ad, this the URL you will be re-directed to.  If you are familiar with URLs of the ads you make available to affiliates and marketers, then, if you are lucky and they are “Direct Linking”, the URL can be easily recognized.  Simply Copy and Paste this URL into an email to your contact or representative at the appropriate network or channel and they can work to make the infringement end.

If you cannot recognize the URL, the destination URL might be a ‘Landing Page’, meaning a web page developed by the Affiliate or Internet Marketer to promote an advertiser, product or service.  If not a Landing Page, the URL may trigger re-direction, or series of re-directs, before arriving at the actual destination URL.  Later in this course, we will review ‘following-the-click’, or Clickstream Investigations.  Using your mouse, highlight and Copy the URL after q= (do not include the q= as well).

Open a new web browser, or return to one you currently have open, and Paste the URL into the Address Bar, like in the image to the left, and press the Enter key on your keyboard.  In this example, you can see that the Destination URL (http://trendtrain.com…) does not lead to re-direction, but a Landing Page.  If there is an ad on the Landing Page, Right Click on it, Copy the Link Location (or Shortcut) and jump to the section on Clickstream Investigations.

In the case of TrendTrain, they are offering a service that is unrelated to eBay’s core business.  There are those, outside of Affiliates and Internet Marketing partners, that will infringe on your trademarks as well.  To determine who owns/operates a particular domain name, visit any web site that offers WHOIS reports, such as Network Solutions.  Domain name registration services do make the option of securing the owners identity and contact information available to registrants.  But, WHOIS will allow you to learn who the domain name registration and hosting services are, and contacting them can help to enforce your trademark rights.

Clickstream Investigations:

There are several different methods to log the re-direction that occurs from click-to-ultimate destination URL; going through network logs, using software to display re-direction, web based tools, etc.  Probably the two easiest methods are the software and web-based tools.

Using a program, such as HTTPWatch, you can Record (or log) all network activity.  Simply click on an ad on a Landing Page, or Copy and Paste an extracted AdWord Destination URL into the Address Bar of your browser.  It is important to note, again, that Clickstream Investigations on MSN and Yahoo ads will generate CPC fees for whomever ads it is you are effectively clicking on.  In the example to the left, we have clicked on an eBay ad and, by reviewing the log you can identify re-direction going through ad networks or tracking servers/services.  In this case, we have highlighted the re-direction occurring through eBay’s tracking system for their Partner Network, ‘Rover’.  Depending on which Affiliate or Advertising Network is being used, you should be able to identify those responsible, or the networks/channels utilized, in a similar fashion.

Web based tools, such as Rex Swain’s HTTP Viewer, are also able to log and follow network activity, just like software tools.  Simply Copy and Paste the Destination URL into the URL box and click on the Submit button to initiate the process.  It should be noted that experts at re-direction and misdirection schemes are aware of many web based tools, including Rex Swain, and have taken additional steps to cover-up their activity.  Although web based tools are powerful, we prefer to use software tools - or accessing raw network activity logs (which is outside the scope of this course) to perform Clickstream Investigations.

In this example, the HTTP Viewer tool is able to follow the re-direction.  Just as with software tools, by reviewing the re-direction, and by being able to recognize the URL structure of your ads, you should be able to identify the affiliate or partner, or, at the very least, the affiliate or ad network being utilized.  Like before, we have highlighted the re-direction passing through eBay’s “Rover” tracking system.

Notifying Networks, Channels, Hosting Services, etc:

When alerting networks, channles and hosting services about trademark infringement, you want to be sure to include as much supporting evidence as possible.  Copy and Paste the URLs at the Search Engines where the ads were seen, take screenshots of the ads, and of the steps you took to determine that someone working with that network or channel is involved.

Hopefully, the information in this course will allow you to be able to determine who is involved in infringing on your trademarks, or, at least, the networks/channels they are using the monitize that infringement.

If you need help defending your online advertising program against Trademark Infringement, please review our Services, or contact us.

Jumping the Shark is a term used to describe television shows that are:

typically deemed to have passed their peak, since they have undergone too many changes to retain their original appeal, and after this point critical fans often sense a noticeable decline in the show’s quality.

More specifically,

Jump-the-shark moments may be scenes like the one described above (Happy Days character Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli jumps over a shark) that finally convince viewers that the show has fundamentally and permanently strayed from its original premise. In those cases they are viewed as a desperate and futile attempt to keep a series fresh in the face of declining ratings

The term can apply to anything that has changed to the point of being, in a sense, of rapidly declining value and utility. As of today, I think that Yahoo Search Marketing’s editorial processes may have ‘jumped the shark’.

This afternoon, I was quite suprised to learn that a Paid Search campaign on YSM had been deactivated, so I immediately logged in to find out why. The campaign-in-question is for our Trademark Monitoring and Protection service. Interestingly, Yahoo Search Marketing seems to believe such a product or service is “unacceptable”.

Now, there are a lot of very smart people working at Yahoo, so, I considered that, perhaps, what they were saying was that a trademark monitoring and protection service was not “unacceptable”, but was just invalid or unnecessary. So, I did a little investigating to see if that was actually the case.

It would seem that might be the case. Yahoo is certainly doing a bang-up job monitoring and enforcing infringement of their own trademarks. Not a single Paid Search ad to be found under the keyword “yahoo”.

Then there is Tiffany, the company which just lost a trademark infringement lawsuit against eBay. Mmmm… lots of ads under the keyword “tiffany”…

And there’s Apple, a company very protective of their trademarks. Lots of ads under keyword “apple” as well. Something does not seem right…

Not just Apple, but Apple’s flagship iPhone product. Again, lots of ads under keyword ‘iphone’.

So, clearly, a trademark monitoring and protection service is not invalid or unnecessary. Perhaps Yahoo was being clear in their message and a trademark monitoring and protection service is unacceptable to them. I must admit that I find this a little odd, especially considering how well they protect their own trademarks. With that in mind, I decided to dig and find out just what kind of services and products are acceptable to Yahoo Search Marketing.

Porn is an acceptable product or service. And, it is available by the ton, and free too!

So is making explosives. Beauty products and the making of explosives, together at least. Apparently, you can get all your personal care and explosive needs taken care of at shopping.yahoo.com. One-stop-shopping, indeed. Blow things up and look good doing it.

The Terrorist Handbook is a solid product or service, fully acceptable to YSM. Finally, the answers to the question of what to do with all of your left over explosives! Now, if we could only find something to do with those beauty products…

Holy smoke, even slaves are an acceptable product or service at Yahoo Search Marketing! I don’t know about the Target stores near you, but I haven’t seen human beings for sale at the one close to me.

The major search engines do little to be an ally in combating trademark infringement and abuse occurring across their properties. Yahoo Search Marketing has taken that to the next-level… they’ve jumped-the-shark.

“Transparency”, because that’s really the only way to ensure trust and confidence in a relationship, especially a business relationship. And, “Laboratories”, because compliance assurance work is much more than reviewing metric-based reports. It is, literally, a field-of-study. A dynamic environment where scientific methods are employed to achieve the desired results. But constant testing, research, development of new theories and methods, etc, is critical to achieving the desired results on an on-going basis. “Pursuing the science of compliance” is exactly what we do. But why?

Everyone involved with Transparency Labs could, if they wished, be a ‘black hat‘, but have chosen a different path. We all believe in the Compliance Effect Theory, which simply states that monitoring and enforcing compliance will create positive opportunities and effects for advertising programs, networks, and the Internet as a whole. Without continuing to try to speak for all the T-Labs scientists, let me just offer my own story for being on the ‘white hat‘ side.

I received my first computer in 1982, purchased my first modem in 1984 and have been involved with computer telecommunications ever since. But, for the most part, it was a ‘toy’ and fun distraction. By 1993, I was still playing with computers, but was attending college majoring in History and minoring in Political Science, when the university began to allow free Internet access to all students. As a bit of a ‘computer geek’, I was aware of the Internet, and thought it might be interesting to play with too. And it was fun, but, as far as our access at-the-time was concerned, entirely text-based. However, when web access was introduced to students in 1994, ‘fun’ became serious.

My first experiences with the web, from the prospective of a historian, blew me away. Although the technology was very raw, the potential was clear. Near instantaneous distribution of information, and the range of applications was nearly unlimited. The Internet is an invention of almost indescribable historical significance. It is, metaphorically speaking, on the level of a Printing Press that virtually everyone can access, contribute too, and through it, view everyone else’s “Printing Presses”. I could have spent that last 15 years teaching high school history and poli-sci, but, there are only so many genuine watershed moments in history to-go-around. Discovering fire, inventing the wheel, writing, irrigation and cultivation, navigation, the printing press, the steam-engine, etc. Faced with the opportunity to teach history, or participate in history, as a historian, the choice was very simple.

“The Information Age” is not just a marketing slogan, it is very real.  Not unlike the citizens of late 14th-century Florence, we all are, collectively, experiencing the dawn of something new.  Although the Internet, as we know it, is approaching its second decade, as a medium and an influencer, it is still in it’s infancy.  As a historian, I personally believe that “law and order, not chaos” is important to the healthy evolution of the Internet.  So, my decision to be ‘white hat’ was simple as well. It provides me with the ability to do work that I enjoy, is intellectually-challenging, and which I feel is beneficial, even if in very minor ways, to what, I believe, should be viewed as the most important catalyst in human development of the last 1000 years - The Internet.

To do that work, we at Transparency Labs believe that it is extremely important to know and understand non-compliant Affiliates and Internet Marketers. It is not enough to say they are greedy, cheaters, fraudsters, etc. Exploring and understanding the “why”, in addition to the “how”, gives us an edge in anticipating “how, next time?”. Towards that end, our first round of research is a study of Non-Compliant Actors in Affiliate and Internet Marketing as a Complex Adaptive System. We believe it can help establish a foundation for understanding why people operate outside of compliance, and identifies key motivators and feedback loops for this behavior. Knowledge of these motivators can help compliance enforcement teams research strategies and employ processes that will increase their effectiveness.