Imagine searching for your own company name and seeing a competitor above you. Many advertisers immediately ask whether Google can stop it. The answer surprises most people: Google Ads isn't where brand protection starts. It starts with trademark registration.

For this article, we had the pleasure of speaking with Gisella Zúñiga and Julia Leeson, Intellectual and Industrial Property specialists at Sumaq Law Firm, who shared their insights on the most common challenges businesses face when protecting and managing their brands in digital environments.

Why Brand Protection Matters

A brand is often one of a company's most valuable assets. It allows consumers to identify the origin of a product or service and distinguish it from competitors.

As a business grows, so does the likelihood that third parties will attempt to benefit from that recognition. This can take many forms: using similar names, registering lookalike domains, or even incorporating a brand into advertising campaigns.

In Google Ads, this often becomes visible when advertisers notice competitors appearing for searches related to their brand.

But before thinking about how to respond within Google Ads, there is a more fundamental question to ask: is your brand legally protected?

Trademark Registration: The First Line of Defence

One of the most valuable insights that emerged from our conversation with Sumaq was that many businesses still approach trademark protection too late.

"The most common mistake companies make is investing in their brand identity, website, and marketing campaigns before checking whether the brand can actually be registered."

While this may sound like a minor administrative detail, the consequences can be significant. If the brand name already exists, is too descriptive, or conflicts with prior rights, a business may be forced to undertake a complete rebrand after investing considerable time, budget, and effort into building awareness.

For this reason, the ideal time to register a trademark is as soon as the name has been chosen and before the business is launched publicly. Conducting a trademark clearance search early on helps identify potential conflicts and avoid far more expensive problems later.

Trademark strategy should also align with business growth plans. If international expansion is part of the roadmap, registering in a single country may not be sufficient. In many cases, securing protection at a European or international level from the outset can be a more efficient long-term approach.

How to Detect Competitive Activity Around Your Brand

Once a trademark has been registered, the work is not over.

Businesses should regularly monitor what happens when users search for their brand on Google. One of the most useful tools for this is the Auction Insights report within Google Ads.

Auction Insights allows advertisers to identify which competitors are participating in the same auctions and detect shifts in the competitive landscape.

Some of the most useful metrics include:

• Impression Share, which shows how frequently an advertiser appears compared to the total number of opportunities available.
• Overlap Rate, which indicates how often another advertiser participates in the same auctions as your campaigns.
• Position Above Rate, which shows how often a competitor's ad appears above yours when both advertisers are eligible to enter the same auction.

A sudden increase in these metrics may indicate that new competitors are bidding on searches related to your brand or increasing their visibility for brand-related queries.

Beyond Google Ads, businesses should also periodically review search engine results, monitor similar domain registrations, and remain alert to potential attempts to benefit from their brand reputation.

Brand protection is not a one-off action. It is an ongoing process of monitoring, evaluation, and management.

How Google Trademark Protection Works - And Where It Falls Short

Many advertisers assume that registering a trademark automatically prevents competitors from appearing when users search for that term. In reality, the situation is more nuanced.

Google distinguishes between the use of a trademark in ad copy and the use of that trademark as a keyword. Depending on the market and the specific circumstances, a competitor may be able to bid on searches related to a registered trademark without automatically infringing trademark rights.

This is arguably one of the least understood limitations among advertisers.

Google provides detailed guidance on how its trademark policies work, including the situations in which trademark owners can submit complaints and the limitations of Google's enforcement process. Advertisers can review the policy here:

Google Ads Trademark Policy: https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en

Trademark registration does not eliminate every potential conflict. What it does provide is a much stronger legal foundation for taking action when there is a risk of consumer confusion, unfair advantage, or unlawful exploitation of a brand's reputation.

As the specialists at Sumaq explained, every situation must be assessed individually to determine whether the activity constitutes legitimate advertising or trademark infringement.

Expert Legal Perspective: Building a Strong Brand From Day One

Throughout our conversation with Gisella and Julia, one idea consistently emerged: trademark protection should be treated as a strategic business decision, not an administrative formality.

"A trademark should not be treated as a simple administrative procedure, but as a fundamental business asset."

From a legal perspective, the strongest trademarks typically share three characteristics:

• They are distinctive.
• They are memorable.
• They do not directly describe the product or service.

Descriptive names can be attractive from a marketing perspective because they immediately communicate what a business does. 

For example, a name such as “Running Shoes for Less” instantly describes the product being sold, but would be difficult to register and enforce because competitors may legitimately need to use those same words.

By contrast, a distinctive name such as Velora carries no direct meaning in relation to running shoes. While it may require more marketing effort initially, it is generally easier to protect legally and allows the business to build a unique identity over time.

A strong trademark not only strengthens legal protection but also helps build a more differentiated and sustainable brand over time.

Key Takeaways

Brand protection in Google Ads does not begin in Google Ads.

It begins with a well-defined intellectual property strategy.

Registering a trademark before investing in marketing, actively monitoring its use, and understanding the limitations of available protection mechanisms can significantly reduce risk and create a stronger foundation for growth.

As Gisella summarised during our interview:

"Don't wait until you have a problem to start taking trademark protection seriously."

For any business investing in digital acquisition, a trademark is far more than a name. It is one of the company's most valuable assets and deserves to be protected from day one.