Dear Sir or Madam:
It has recently come to our attention that your company appears to be bidding on Go Daddy's trademarked terms (or terms that are confusingly similar to our trademarks) as keywords for Search Engine advertisements. (The specific advertisement we are referencing was seen on Ask US on February 9, 2010) The specific terms are as follows:
www.godaddy.com
<... omitted company data ...>
Go Daddy is the owner of the following registered trademarks (among others): GO DADDY (U.S. Reg. Nos. 2558989 and 2593111), GODADDY.COM (U.S. Reg. Nos. 2945200 and 2969916), DADDY (U.S. Reg. No. 3156369).
These registrations are prima facie evidence of the validity of the marks, of our ownership of the marks, and of our exclusive right to use the marks in commerce. Any use that your company may be making of the trademarks described herein is not authorized by Go Daddy, nor is such use otherwise permissible under law.
Although our trademarked terms may not appear directly in your advertisements, we maintain that usage of Go Daddy's protected trademarks as search terms/advertising keywords constitutes a trademark infringement. Advertising based on our trademarked keywords uses our marks in commerce in a way that is likely to cause confusion among consumers who perform a search for the protected mark "Go Daddy," and are instead presented with an advertisement for a competing website.
To prevent confusion and to protect Go Daddy's intellectual property rights, therefore, we request that you do the following:
1. Discontinue advertising on any and all search terms that are identical to or confusingly similar to our registered trademarks, and
2. Add the registered trademarks listed above to your "negative keywords" list to prevent your advertisements from appearing on searches for our registered trademarks in the future.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this important matter.
Regards,
Carlos Becerra
Trademark Administration
The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
