The Flat Planet and a Phone !

A couple of days ago, I received a notice from Google that an ad I was running in the Adwords program was banned due to the use of the word “Asterisk”. Many other advertisers also posted to the asterisk-biz list about similar experiences. In fact as of now, searching for “asterisk” on google returns ZERO ads, so it seems that all advertisements have been banned.

I have two issues with the step taken by Google. One is with Google and the other with Digium, who claims to own the Asterisk trademark.

I take issue with Google for canceling any ads that use the word Asterisk. One, there are other companies, products that use the word Asterisk, outside of the telephony domain, and two since Asterisk is also an open source project, shouldn’t developers be able to advertise - we are Asterisk experts or, we are Asterisk developers?

But my main complaint is to Digium. I understand that they want to protect their trademark. But if you consider that what has made Asterisk so popular is the Asterisk community — By disallowing all ads, you are not exactly assisting the community….

After tens of posts to the asterisk-biz list on this subject, Digium posted their response a few minutes ago.

In response to an increase in the occurrence of unauthorized use of
Digium trademarked terms, Digium has recently expanded our efforts to
control the use of Digium’s trademarks. One the measures taken has been
to work within Google’s defined programs to control the purchase of
Digium trademarked terms as Google Adwords. In doing so we proactively
provided Google with a list of companies that have signed agreements
with Digium permitting the use of Digium trademarks. Organizations on
that list will continued to be allowed by Google to purchase Digium
trademarked terms as Google Adwords.

However, if your organization has been recently been contacted by Google
and required to stop using the Digium marks, you may contact Digium
directly to request that your company be added to the list of authorized
organizations.

For those organizations that are resellers and partners, that are not
formally Digium authorized, why not sign up and become a reseller or
technology partner? To do so please visit
http://www.digium.com/en/ecosystem/ and click through to your selected
type of partnership.

If the formal Digium programs don’t fit your situation, you may send a
request to the trademarks@digium.com address with some history of your
past use and the specifics of your request for the future. If you are
unsure of the Digium trademark policy, please visit
http://www.digium.com/en/company/view-policy/5.

We will attempt to turn around all requests within 24-48 business
hours.

–
Jared Smith
Community Relations Manager

Does this clear up the issue? Not really. If Digium has provided Google with a list of approved advertisers, how come there are no ads when I google for “asterisk”? And as one veteran Asterisk community member asked on the list -

I just wonder what are the criteria to get Google AdWords approval from Digium if you are not formally Digium authorized or whatever.

Jared said you can request approval by “address[ing] with some history of your past use and the specifics of your request for the future.”

I for one will not lock myself into selling a particular product unless it is best for the customer or what the customer specifically wants. That would bar me from being formally Digium authorized.

Is Digium slowly destroying the community that built it??

UPDATE - The picture is worse than I thought, look what this Digium reseller posted —

Kevin:

We got ads booted for having Asterisk in the copy.

What I find the most humorous about this that if you resell Digium PCI cards, like we  do and you advertise that Digium PCI card on Google via Adwords, you can’t put “works with Asterisk” in the ad copy for that product as the Google filters will boot the ad.

Maybe Digium want us resellers to substitute “Asterisk” with “trixbox” or one of the other open source telephony platforms.

I have no problems with companies protecting their trademarks, but when you have been selling millions of dollars per year of a companies products for over three years, you would figure that company would at least be proactive and tell you that they are going to be doing this (or add you to the safe list).

The first time you hear of the policy change shouldn’t be when Google’s send you an email stating that ads had been denied…and I am still waiting on the “authorization” I asked for on Monday.

Is that what happens now that “adults” are in control?? I liked it better when the “kids” ran the show!