Users are now being allowed to report counterfeit goods within the organic Google search results for removal. This is similar to the DMCA process, which lets you request removal of stolen copyrighted content from Google’s search results.
Google Ads already prohibits counterfeit goods from being advertised on Google and it describes them as goods that “contain a trademark or logo that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the trademark of another. They mimic the brand features of the product in an attempt to pass themselves off as a genuine product of the brand owner.”
Google has added the option to report counterfeit good for takedown to the legal troubleshooter form, similar to where you report copyright and other legal notices, in Google search. An option for counterfeit foods was added so they could be reported for takedown review.
According to a Google spokesperson, this policy will only apply to counterfeits, and not to non-counterfeit forms of trademark infringement.
Google also said that, at this time, this is a fully manual process. Google requires you to submit a takedown request, in which a Google employee will review the request and decide to take down the content or not.
Over time though, Google will utilized submissions in order to develop ranking algorithms and systems, which is going to help Google further limit the visibility of sites that typically are found to sell counterfeit goods. In the end, this will lead to Google algorithmically stop these types of goods from appearing in organic Google results.