Today I received an email from Amazon saying that my application was denied because they do not accept domain names with trademarks in them. My domain and website is ipadsandipads.com My questions is if my website is about ipads and all I want to do is sale ipads, I cant have Ipad in the domain name? or am I missing something. Check out the email below. Hello, Thanks for your application to the Amazon Associates Program. When you filled out our online application form, you listed the URL for your web site as: WWW.IPADSANDIPADS.COM. We do not allow the use of URLs that include trademarked words. This includes variations or misspellings of any trademarked words. Therefore, we are unable to accept your application. Please review our Operating Agreement for further details: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement Thank you for your interest in the Amazon Associates Program.
yes, if amazon allowed you to have their products on your site Amazon could also be done under trademark law, and could loose the rights to sell iPads themselves.
Having a trademark in a domain name, especially when you are talking about the product, if the definition of trademark infringement. Apple Corp take the domain and/or sue you for damages. I would advise dropping the domain.
Forget about the trademark domain... eventually Apple will sue you for it and all the work you put into it will go to waste.
Your are missing the point. The issue here is about trademark infringement and not about choosing what product to promote.
Apply again to Amazon with a different domain name, and then promote products on your ipads site. This is risky for two reasons - Apple could take your domain and Amazon could take your comissions. However, I have promoted sites on Amazon with trademarks in the domain name and never had any trouble. Calculated risk....
Amazon does enforce trademarks, sometimes even quietly and without actually sending out a letter. I noticed recently that the items had disappeared off one of my stores after several months of operation, so I added new products to the store. The next day they disappeared and coincidentally I had lots of hits from Italy in the days before, it seems my domain name is trademarked in Europe by an Italian company, not in the US where I had checked. Rather than send me a letter that might offend me, Amazon just implemented a filter apparently on the API so the items would be flagged as deleted and then my website would drop them, something like that. You might slip in a trademark into a large account with many domains, but if you have sales and the manufacturer is the product seller, they might see it and complain as apparently happened in my case. Whether they send a letter or do something else to stop your sales, it just isn't worth investing time and money into a domain where success will lead to failure.
I was thinking about this as well. What if I have the trademarked domain forward the sale to the approved domain using some sort of redirect? Will they be able to detect?
Stay out of the hot water of trademark issues. If it ever does come to court, your whole life will come crashing down. A better calculated risk would be in taking no risk at all with a catchy yet non-illegal domain name. If it weren't for the legal trouble, I'd be quite jealous of that domain name.
Looks like it is definately a risk. Really interesting info from cerno, and that is definately how Amazon behave. They don't contact you, warn you etc. - they just do what they want. Kind of like Google. I guess it is easier for them to try and sneak products off your store than contact you and deal with the hassle. Knowing their support, they are definitely understaffed in areas. Reminds me of when the Nintendo Wii first launched and was selling out everywhere. Promoting it on Amazon suddenly generated no commission - without warning, they pulled commission for that item because they knew it would sell anyway.
Get rid of the site immediately. If you find any success with it, you will be targeted for a lawsuit from Apple. Let the domain name expire, as you won't be able to sell it. I would find something a little more general, but still relating to digital music players or personal media devices. Re-submit your application once you have your new domain, which doesn't have a protected copyright name, and watch your application get approved!
Just apply with another site and then you could probably still put amazon stuff on the ipad site after you're accepted...???Maybe??? Or maybe not, as I just saw someone else who posted something about getting sued by Apple, doesn't sound good.
You will definately get accepted if you just put another domain name in. And then you can promote products on the ipad domain. Its just a calculated risk...
How about applying for Amazon with a Blogger domain? Will I get in if it doesn't contain any trademarks in its name? I would also like some advice on the amount of content I should have on the blog before applying. I guess a one-page blog won't get through, would it?
I think it will, personally I don't think they actually check the sites. Just the trademark in the domain name. Plus I have heard someone say that the application to Amaozn through blogger.com is streamlined (i.e. no checks), although this is second hand information and I haven't seen it myself.