[asterisk-biz] Digium Relaxes Google Adword Policy

[Danny Windham]

Over the past week Digium has received a number of charged responses
regarding the recent change in policy regarding use of Digium trademarked
terms in Google AdWords. Some of the responses supported our attempts to
better control the use of Digium trademarked terms. Some of the responses
disagreed with the policy, but respected Digium's right to have changed
the policy. Others were from individuals who clearly were unhappy with the
change and the process by which it was implemented. We have listened
carefully to the feedback, and as a result are relaxing our Google AdWord
policy. 

 

While we did provide Google a list of organizations that would be
authorized to use the Digium trademarked terms, in retrospect it's
apparent that we underestimated the number of organizations that were
utilizing Digium trademarked terms in their Google AdWords marketing
campaigns. Underestimating the magnitude of this policy change also
resulted in inadequate planning of the implementation of the change - we
simply could have done a better job of communicating the proposed change
in advance of it being implemented. We also could have better understood
the actual mechanics of Google's enforcement engine - and better
anticipated the corresponding result.

 

In short, we now believe we made a mistake and are working to relax the
requirements for using Digium trademarked terms in Google AdWords. The
resulting change will reinstate trademark rights for the vast majority of
those using the terms.  For the confusion and frustration created by this
event, we sincerely apologize.

 

A common test that I often use in determining the proper reaction when
something goes wrong is - were we doing it for the right reasons? In this
case the answer is absolutely yes. On the part of Digium and the Asterisk
community and ecosystem, there's value in ensuring that the trademarked
terms are used in a legal, consistent, and ethical fashion. While it is
important for Digium to protect its trademarks, we now better understand
just how significant an impact changes in this area can have and just how
important it is for any proposed change to be judiciously derived and
methodically implemented. 

 

Thank you for your continued support of Digium.

 

 

 Danny Windham

CEO

Digium, Inc. 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-biz/attachments/20080118/72203330/attachment-0001.htm