You are right, that may not be a fair characterization. The problem I see is how a list of trademarked words becomes blacklisted for use in advertising. I am fine if Germans want to let any word be trademarked, and then sort it out later in the court system. But we have a situation where the trademark list is auto-uploaded to Google and stops the word "hackathon" from being used in ads in Germany, thus a real problem.

The automatic trademark blacklist in Google adwords is really idiotic even if the trademark is valid. I once tried making an ad for my Mac app, and I couldn't include the word "Mac" or "Mac OS" in the copy because they are trademarks.

I had literally the exact same issue. They said I had to get them paperwork from Apple's legal department, ignoring Apple trademark page saying it's okay to use the Mac trademark to sell a Mac app which I forwarded to them with an explanation.

My exact ad said "Try _____, a better way to _____ for Windows and Mac".

They didn't mention the Windows trademark. Pfft.

In the US, you couldn't trademark the word "Apple" in the food category since it is the term for a group of fruits. It is valid in other categories.

Which means it should at most be blocked for categories in which a trademark is held, not for ads in other categories, or use as a generic word - if at all.

Not sure about German law or how much research they do into words before they allow the trademark. It does seem a bit of due diligence was missed.

"Bonjour(tm), tu as touché(tm) du doigt un vrai problème durant ton exposé(tm)."

"Hello, you pointed out a real issue during your talk."