How do I create an infringement rule?

Infringement Rules enable you to easily capture adverts that are appearing on your brand and trademark terms on Google and Bing search engines (if you have Bing enabled). Key benefits include:

1. Save money by monitoring channel partners or resellers who are competing too aggressively on your brand terms
2. Monitor affiliates to ensure they are using the correct ad copy and are not bidding on restricted terms such as your brand terms (and receiving commission on resulting leads)
3. Monitor competitors who are illegally using your trademarks in their ad copy

In this article, we'll show you how to:

• Decide which terms you want to monitor
• Create an Infringement Rule
• Set rules for Hourly Terms
• Set rules for Competitors
• Infringement Advert Text
• Amend an existing Infringement Rule
• Related articles

Decide which terms you want to monitor

You can monitor any term in a rule as long as it is in your Hourly Terms Group, so before you can create your first rule, you need to decide which search term(s) you would like to monitor hourly.  You do this in Search Term Settings.

Create a new Infringement Rule

Once you've added terms into the hourly terms group, navigate to the Brand Protection section in the left navigation menu, then go to Infringement Tracker > Settings > New Infringement Tracker Rule

First enter a Rule Name and then decide on your rule type by selecting which search engine and device you would like to monitor. If you do not have Bing and/or Mobile enabled in your account but would like to track this activity, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Optionally, add email addresses for colleagues you would like to receive the CSV report; after entering each email address you must hit the Add button. 

For further information, please see Infringement Rules - Best Practice & Tips.

Now you’ll want to begin setting report rules for Search Terms, Competitors & Advert Text.

Set rules for hourly terms

You have the option to add one hourly term at a time or you can select All hourly terms, Hourly terms in a rule or Hourly terms not in a rule.

Set rules for Competitors

1. Click on Competitors
2. To monitor a specific set of competitors, such as your affiliates, select the option Only the following domains. Alternatively, the All domains except the following option should be used to specify competitors that you know will be appearing on the terms consistently, such as your own domain!
3. Enter a valid domain (such as 'adthena.com') into the text box. Note that a list appears of domains that match the text you typed but you can enter a domain that does not appear in the list if required
4. Press Enter on your keyboard
5. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until all the competitors have been entered

Set rules for Advert Text

If you want to report on all adverts then skip this step.  However, if you want to only monitor adverts that include specific phrases in a specific area of the advert (such as "Discount" in the Description only), then you’ll need to complete the following steps:

1. Click on Add Text 
2. Enter a phrase (in this example "Discount"). Note that you are able to enter terms not shown in the dropdown
3. Press Enter on your keyboard
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until all phrases have been entered
5. Choose where in the advert you want searched for the phrase: Text in Title, In Description, In Display URL or In Ad Click URL.

Once all rules all have been configured, click the Save button at the top right of the page.

Amend an Infringement Rule

It's easy to Pause, Edit or Delete an existing rule. 

1. Click Infringement Tracker in the left navigation menu > Settings
2. Find the rule you want to edit
3. In the Actions column click the Set Live/Pause or Trash button
4. To make changes to the rule itself, click on the name of the rule and this will direct you to the rule configuration page.

Related articles

View Infringements

How do I export export an Infringement report?

Infringement report CSV export  - what do the columns mean?

Infringement evidence - how do I view it & create a screen shot?

A competitor is misusing my trademark - what do I do now?