Google freezes 9to5Google ad revenue over trademark violation

If you follow a lot of tech news, then chances are you have come across the site ‘9to5Google' at some point, after all, they have been around for a number of years and have often proven to be a reliable source for new information. However, it seems that the site has found itself in a bit of situation as Google had suspended the site's ad revenue over a trademark violation.

9to5Google made the situation public around 15 hours ago (at the time of writing), announcing that their ads had stopped working. However, things got really interesting after the site got in touch with Google's advertising department, who confirmed that the revenue suspension was no accident and was in fact due to a policy change.

“We have learned that Google’s Public Policy Team has decided that, after 5 years of publishing under the 9to5Google name, we have been violating their trademark.” 9to5Google's post said. “We are a news site dedicated to covering Google, not trying to masquerade as Google, so we’re appealing this decision. But there is a big chance we’ll have to change our name.”

This news spread throughout the web pretty swiftly over the last day with many other sites reporting the story- something that obviously grabbed Google's attention as an update on the post released today announced that the policy team has “taken another look at the decision” and ended up reinstating ads on the site. However, after this little scare, 9to5Google may end up changing their name anyway.

KitGuru Says: This was certainly an odd move to make, after all 9to5Google has been a popular news site for quite a few years now. Either way, Google seemed to change its mind on this pretty fast. 

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