What is an impression on Facebook advertising?

Was Google inconsistent or unfair in preventing Aaron Greenspan from advertising his book because it contained the word "Facebook (product)" in it?  Does Google (company) allow other advertisements to run which contain trademarks?

• I was under the impression that a trademark holder could not prevent the use of their trademark in advertising (it was fair use) under US law (but less so in Europe). Do you feel you were singled out by Google in this case, because of Google's relationship with Facebook?

• Answer:

  I don't know Google's history as far as trademark enforcement is concerned, whether it's related to Google's trademarks or those of others in AdWords. Your understanding of fair use in this context is correct; my using the word "Facebook" in my book's subtitle was clearly not infringing, and contrary to what has sometimes been reported, Facebook's lawyers even admitted this. I appealed the issue to Google and received back a denial, at which point I had to choose between going after Google, going after Facebook (for trademarking what I considered at that time to be a generic term that many including myself had used firsrt), or both. Google's decision seemed to me to be inconsistent with the law, but not necessarily with the company's own policy of regulating trademark usage in AdWords advertisements. At the time it did not seem as though pursuing legal action against Google would actually help to resolve much. I don't believe I was singled out by Google for any reason in particular, just as I wasn't singled out when they made some unbelievably stupid and fundamentally dishonest decisions when I was dealing with them concerning AdSense and AdSense for Domains (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403.html). They just made a mistake that happened to have a high impact. There are a lot of smart people at Google, but smart people are also sometimes wrong.