I've been an amazon associate for a little over a year, and to be honest, didn't really bat too much of an eye, until my first referral fee was deposited to my account. It was a very pleasant surprise, and well, lets just say that it got me to a level of motivation I hadn't experienced since I became an adsense publisher. In any case, I get an email from them today, I've pasted it below: Greetings from Amazon.com. It has recently come to our attention that you are using a domain name in our Associates Program that contains a variation and/or misspelling of the name AMAZON, including but not limited to AMAZONWEBSHOP.COM. Please note that we do not allow anyone with a URL containing the word "amazon" or any misspelling of the word "amazon" to participate in the Associate Program (see Section 1 of the Associates Program Operating Agreement at http://associates.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/help/operating/). Such use violates Amazon.com's trademark, proprietary and other rights. At this juncture, we are willing to assume that you have registered and are using this domain name without a full appreciation of the above, provided that you are willing to assign this domain name over to Amazon.com. Please advise whether you agree to transfer ownership of the AMAZONWEBSHOP.COM domain name to Amazon.com. If so, you will be contacted with further details. If, however, we do not hear from you regarding the above within ten days from the date of this email, we will have no alternative but to terminate your associates account effective as of the date of this email and you will not receive payment for Q1-2006. Please know that we value our relationship and we look forward to hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Best regards, Amazon.com Account Specialist Associates Program http://www.amazon.com Sure enough the agreement did say that I can't use the amazon name in my domain name to serve in the associates program. Fine, I've replied back that I agree to change the domain name and their letter says that I have a full 10 days to comply, but does that mean I have to give up the domain name? I was totally shocked that the name AmazonWebShop dot com was available, and I'm sure that if the name were appraised, it'd be worth a whole hell of alot more then my associates account. Do I have to give up the name? I mean I could always use the domain as a marketing platform to refer traffic to other shops. I'd make more money doing that, then I actually make from the associate program. Lastly, could I in fact use a loophole, and simply forward all the traffic from the domain to my new one awswebshop dot com(yeah, i register nice domains)? Since it would not be breaking the assosciate's agreement any longer, and my new name wouldn't violate their IP. I could use alot of replies on this post. Thanks, PuReWebDev
I'm not sure what kind of response you're after, but you've pretty much answered your own question. That is exactly what I would do if I were you. Make a new domain and forward the traffic from the old.
Don't know if the name is really worth all that much, considering you can't use it for the obvious purpose. Sounds pretty much like they want ownership of the domain if you want to continue being an affiliate.
Give up - the courts are ruling that corporations can control how others can use their names. I know it sounds weird, but that's the current law. Greg-J: From looks of it, Amazon is going to take the domain name. This will prevent traffic from being forwarded.
This is definitely a grey area folks... First of all, let me state that I agree he will not be able to use this domain for the Amazon.com associates program since it is their perogative as a company to do business with anyone they want to and make rules to abide by. However, Since when is the word "Amazon" THEIR property? If he was selling artifacts found in the Amazon River through his shop "AmazonWebShop.com" then he would be well within his rights to keep the domain and they would have no right to force him to give it up no more than the government forcing me to give up a domain called "AmericanCars.com" or "CaliforniaDirectory.com".
It's not really a grey area. Trademark infringement can be determined by the content of a site. It you had a site AMAZON.info, and it was about the river and nothing to do with AMAZON.com (no ads) then it wouldn't be infringement. The guy who owned Madona.com lost the domain because he put content about the singer on the site. He also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fight losing the domain. The singer now owns it. When you have a trademark on a word, it IS your property. You own the rights to that name for the specified classification. No one else can use it. "AMAZON" is their property as it relates to a web business and they also hold a servicemark.. There is no use of a "amazon web shop" url that wouldn't be trademark infringement - the content doesn't matter in this case. The name alone would likely confuse someone into thinking they were associated with amazon.com. An intellectual property rights attorney could give you a legal opinion for a couple of hundred dollars if you wanted to fight keeping the name. Disputes like this can run well into six-figures. IMO, this domain name should be turned over to AMAZON as they could just file with ICANN and take it. They could also sue for damages, although I think it is highly unlikely they would do it unless use of the name continued. When you own a trademark, you are REQUIRED to take action against people. These big companies aren't worried about losing a little business - they are worried about losing their trademark. I don't know why Amazon approved the name in the first place. When I signed up, the approval was instant. I'm not sure there is a human review process in all cases, but if there was, someone made a mistake. But unless you were given express permission to use the name (and the agreement says you don't) you don't have a right to use it or sell it. There are a lot of good names that are available - but they are available because use of them would be trademark infringement - thus they have no value. A trademark holder doesn't register these names to protect them, as they have the rights to take them away. Consumer Reports is a good example of a company that does this all the time.
Why?? It wsn't registered because it's called trademark infringment, if you post anything about Amazon.com. Next time think twice about registering a domain with a trademark in it.
See... you have the opinion of the man behind AWS, the one who took Mr Rat's script to the next level, and I am sure he has talked to people at Amazon one way or the other. Right Nintendo ? I would give up the domain, unless you really want to fight with Amazon. I would stay away from any/all trouble, but opinions differ. I maybe wrong .
Oh man, I soooooooooo feel for OP. I had a site that I named after my old AOL handle, then a site with a similar (I said similar, NOT the same) came on the scene, went gangbusters, and demanded that I give them the domain or they'll sue me. Needless to say, I collapsed like a ton of cards. Why fight them? You can't win. Even if you can win, you don't have the money. It's not worth the effort to fight large corporations like this. It's basically you and that one lawyer you're able to hire against an army of suits. To OP: What I would do is shut down your affiliate. DON'T give them the domain name unless they expressly demand it. Then I'd try to sell the domain name to someone else.
Thanks for all the replies, some very useful, some useless. Just to clarify a few things, I registered the domain because I was already an affiliate and wanted to create a new site to sell products through. I never purchased the domain with the idea of infringing on their ip rights. I've since swaped amazonwebshop dot com for awswebshop dot com . At this point I think I'm going to try to use the amazonwebshop site to simply direct traffic to my new site, or market it for other amazon shops. I certainly don't have the kind of money to fight Amazon over the name, but I can still try to sell it, and I think I'm going to get it appraised. When I said that I was surprised it was available, it's because you'd think that they'd have someone registering all the names that they care about, just the same way that ibm would surely have registered the domain name ibmcomputers dot com, it'd just be ridiculous if they didn't. I'll post the outcome or any updates about the situation here. Thanks in advance for an other posts, or comments. PuReWebDev
Get a 301 redirect to a new domain ASAP! At least that way, even if they take the domain, you will buy a little time to get the new domain indexing.
Well then, if that's the case, I think Brazil should sue Amazon.com for taking their river's name....
That's exactly what I meant, using "amazon" in a domain is not infringement. Amazon.com does not own the copyright to "amazon" .... they own "Amazon.com"
Flee the country and start a revolution! Or just give up before you get sued...ask if you can forward the domain to another URL and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you have caused them - suck up to them.
slightly related: what about adsense.com? it's a company which has nothing to do with the adsense we're so used to.
I made a reference to the domain ibmcomputers.com and it turns out that IBM doesn't even own it. PuReWebDev
I would think that as long as you didnt use it for anything Amazon.com related they CANNOT take the domain from you. As long as you have removed any and all things related to Amazon by the 10 day deadline I dont think they have the right to take it. If you were to still us it to promote Amazon after the 10 days then yes, I would think they can take you to court and win. On a side note, forwarding the traffic from amazonwebshop.com to another site promoting Amazon.com is still using that domain to promote Amazon and therefore still breaking their rules.
In cases like this it is often best to look at other similar cases in the past to see how the courts ruled. There have been several high profile cases regarding such domain disputes. Two that come to mind were the fight over brucespringsteen.com in which the singer lost his case for the domain and the other where the signer won the case for madonna.com. This page, Protection of Celebrities Names and Trade Marks under the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy might be a good read, although interpreting any of it might be challenging without some legal training. I certainly don't understand what half of it says.