Google can be quite strict when it comes to enforcing those trademarks. Funnily enough, the company is anything but consistent when it comes to doing that in the U.S. It is pretty lenient when it comes to bidding on other companies trademarks (it’s actually Google’s policy because it’s good for its bottom-line). That approach is getting adopted in Europe too. Google is going to put trademark terms up for auction. That might increase the quality of ads, according to Google anyway, but it could also make it expensive for small businesses and startups to bid on their own trademarks.

People have argued for and against this approach in the past. There is nothing with Toshiba bidding on Apple branded terms and trademarks. Besides, having the ability to challenge top companies in a niche from the get go is good for businesses (and for Google’s bottom-line too).

There are going to be complaints about Google’s new approach in Europe. Those folks do seem to be a bit more strict about these things. But Google is not too concerned:

the European Court of Justice has upheld our right to allow advertisers to bid for keywords corresponding to third party trademarks. This change allows us to harmonize our policies across the world. Users will benefit by seeing more relevant ads following a search on Google.

UK Adwords advertisers will be able to use branded terms in the copy of their ads too. If you can afford it, it’s only fair.