Google's Advertising Policy On Trademarks Costs Corporations Millions

For the record, I am staunchly pro-Google. Thank you Google for leading the evolution of the online marketplace.

However, I am frustrated as a brand marketing consultant how search engines conduct business with total disregard for federally protected trademarks in an effort to make more money.

Google's policy for advertising on trademarks is the following:
"As stated in our Terms and Conditions, advertisers are responsible for the keywords and ad content that they choose to use. We encourage trademark owners to resolve their disputes directly with our advertisers."

I encourage Google to respect the rights of trademark holders, and hopefully the courts will eventually see it that way too. This policy does nothing to address violations of trademark infringement, nor the capacity of an organization to police this abuse on their own.

I know I am not alone when I tell you that I believe this to be a grossly flawed and unethical policy, and Google appears to be in direct violation of U.S. Federal Trademark law, the Lanham Act, and some state statutes. While it is apples and oranges, do you remember when Napster.com was shut down in 2000 for violating copyright protection laws? They tried to claim that they had no responsibility for the actions of the users of their technology. The music industry (RIAA) claimed to have lost around $300 million in sales due to Napster.com. Google's Adwords trademark policy is costing brands millions in annual expenditures, likely in excess of the figure the music industry claims to have lost.

Google has already been stopped from allowing bids on trademarks across the Atlantic (see Google loses trademark cases in France), yet continues to defy the rights of it's U.S. and Canadian-based clients with stupefying audacity. As a result of European courts, here is Google's updated trademark policy by geographic origin:

Trademark rights in the US and/or Canada:
Keywords - we do not investigate trademark terms as keywords
Ad text - we are able to investigate the use of a trademark in ad text

Trademark rights outside the US and/or Canada:
Keywords - we are able to investigate trademark terms as keywords
Ad text - we are able to investigate the use of a trademark in ad text

Is this fair? Is This In Line With Google's "don't be evil" Motto?

Furthermore, Google has no right to tell a trademark holder how many ads they can or can't place on their own trademarks. By virtue of Google even being allowed to use federally protected trademarks in commerce, they should not have the ability to curb the trademark holder from running multiple ads on a trademarked keyword. The reason they do this is to generate revenue by making it attractive for third parties to siphon away branded traffic.