Teletext Holidays has threatened legal action against any travel company which bids on Google against its trademarked brand name.
The move comes after Google lifted a ban which restricted companies being able to bid on protected trade marks via pay-per-click ad slots. The internet search firm will no longer police the unauthorised use of trademarks in any new keyword purchases, which means a company could outbid a rival for use of a trademarked keyword.
Teletext managing director Matt Cheevers said Teletext would resort to legal action if efforts by rivals to outbid for its trademarked keywords continued.
He said the company had seen its bid costs double in a matter of days as rival travel companies appeared against searches for the word Teletext.
A number of major travel companies, which had been bidding on “teletext” for most of this week, curtailed their campaigns within hours of the legal threat.
Cheevers said: “Already a number of travel companies have started to piggy-back off our brand name in order to generate more sales for their company.
“We have taken the stance not to bid against any of our competitor brands and we will not tolerate any company that we find to be bidding against our name. Those companies that do not stop this activity instantly will be dealt with by our solicitors.”