Google takedowns increase but policing burden continues for trademark counsel

For many trademark counsel, online policing is a full-time job and can be the source of great frustration – either due to the ‘whack-a-mole’ effect whereby bad actors quickly replace ads that have been taken down or because of the seemingly insurmountable scale of the world to be monitored. Last year the number of ‘bad ads’ taken down by Google rocketed. While positive, the figures suggest that the policing task faced by trademark counsel is about to get more complicated.