Online retail juggernaut Amazon isn’t too pleased with the name Swiss startup Amazee picked for its social collaboration service, and is now trying to persuade the young company to change it to something else. This has apparently been going on for a couple of months, but now Amazee is stepping up and throwing some good old fighting words out there, claiming ‘peaceful and cooperative efforts to reach an amicable solution’ have led to nothing.
Amazon claims consumers could be confused by the similarity of the two names and wrongfully assume there’s some sort of affiliation. Amazee, on the other hand, claims the name is derived from the word ‘amazing’ (sounds plausible) and alleges that there’s no chance for confusion.
The startup launched a new project on its own service, and this is an excerpt of the description:
Their IP department says:
“… the mark AMAZEE is not a natural derivative of “amazing”. Amazee is a coined term where the dominant portion of the mark brings to mind Amazon, not “amazing”.”
Hm. The brand name Amazon is better known than the english word amazing? Well, at least they show great enthusiasm for their company.
At this point, it looks like Amazon attorneys representing their Luxembourg subsidiary are demanding the deletion of Amazee in the Swiss trademark register (after waiting for the opposition period to expire) while their US attorneys have filed an appeal against the registration of Amazee in the US.
Amazee, which we likened to a ‘Facebook meets Basecamp for activists’ when it launched, is now calling its users and fans to speak up in favor of the service on the project, and they’re trying to get some publicity out of it in a humorous way: if you join to support the submitted project, you have a shot at winning a 100$ Amazon gift certificate.
Personally, I’m pleased to see the young company takes a stance against Amazon, even if they’re clearly now trying to turn the situation into a promotional vehicle. Having taken a good look at Amazee’s size and scope, its logo, the believable explanation of how they came up with the name and particularly its current activities and future plans, I think Amazon is looking ridiculous going after them.
(Via BloggingTom – in German)
Its simply amazon bullying them and hoping for a easy win. I think both sides know if it went to court that Amazon would be SOL- The real question is, should a relatively young startup (that may or may not have funding) be getting involved in a expensive legal battle at a time where every penny counts?
It doesnt look like they would have to worry to much about changing names ( http://www.alex...info/amazee.com ) as their traffic doesnt seem to even register yet, so I am sure they could just out a email to their members letting them know they changed to something else.
Truth be told, the name sort of sucks. Has nothing to do with what they are doing, and when I hear it I think of things totally unrelated to what they are doing.
They should have shot for a “web2″ domain based on a verb they actually use (instead of amaze) like Activiee, Colaboo or whatever.
C’mon, amazee is more close to amaze than to amazon.
Yup I agree with you. And I don’t think Amazon could be able to bring Amazee to court(and win it) for that stupid kind of thing.
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Dude, you already get a link in your name. Why do u keep leaving links back to your shitty site?
i like activiee.com… and its available.
The name sucks really and the logo more than that. Looks very amateurish. Now, with this stunt, Amazee will gain a flickering popularity in web space and make as much use of it as popular. I think Amazon is giving undue importance to a start-up who has turned against it and is using it a promo-vehicle.
agreed. It’s a blatant publicity stunt.
That startup should be ignored. And it will be forgotten tomorrow already.
Rediculous.
I hope Amazonn fail and look really stupid in the process
(typo was not an ironic joke. I’m not that funny)
Well said. Yes, let Amazon fail and look ridiculous for picking up such an idiotic debate with a start-up who has not even a registered traffic.
Hmm, interesting! Just like WebTrends, Inc has tried to bully WebTrendsNg.com into changing their name.
http://www.star...webtrendsngcom/
Goliaths!
Not really ‘just like’ this case, imho, WebTrendsNG is using the full trademarked brand name here.
WebTrends is Not a “full trademarked brand name” It is merely descriptive and therefore probably not a protectable trademark in and of itself. What is protectable is their logo artwork and that name attached to such artwork.
Its like a restaurant trying to trademark “awesome food” No chance, but create a logo that uses that phrase, and the logo is protectable even though you won’t be able to prevent someone from using the that phrase elsewhere, even for an identical product.
If you want protection, name yourself something unrelated to your product. “Apple” for computers, “Amazon” for books, or “Sun” for software
…or make up a name from thin air
WebTrendsNG is actually very much closer to WebTrends Inc than Amazee is to Amazon.
At first glance, one would think they are related. WebTrends, that is.
If Amazon is serious about propecting it’s name the only option is buy Amazee over
They won’t do that if they can avoid it, even if it’s more expensive. They’ll want to deter others, and will be thinking more on principles, even if those are misguided.
Why don’t they have a user poll to see if crowd thinks the names are related?
Good publicity For all AmazXXXX
Well, they do, actually.
http://www.amaz.../node/8482/poll
There is a poll in the project linked to in the article, and so far very few confuse Amazee with Amazon.
@everybody: Thanks for your input, criticism and support, we appreciate it very much. And thanks to Robin for the excellent article!
I suppose it is what’s called “trademark enforcement”, since failure to enforce your trademark can weaken your trademark rights, so you just HAVE to keep an eye out for infringers and actually take action against infringements and potential infringements.
But where is the infringement?
If a company chooses to build a brand around a common word or geographic name they should not be entitled to any legal trademark protection… The name Amazon was in use long before the internet even existed!
Correct, could Brazil go after Amazon.com regarding its jungle just like the word “Champagne” is now trademarked by France?
“The name champagne is legally protected in most countries in order to prevent sparkling wines from outside the Champagne region of France from using the brand.”
http://www.trad...ampagne-anyone/
Would people place goodwill on Amazon if it accepted dead Amazon trees for its books’ paper?
Amazee aren’t guilty but their brand is similar. You say a-ma-zee not a-may-zee – so the word sounds more like amazon, not amazing, but they haven’t registered in bad faith.
We actually do say a-may-zee … So there’s actually even less danger of confusion!
If you asked people to fill out the rest of the word: amaz__, the question is what letters would they insert?
amazee breaks the amazon brand a tad. But, it’s not your problem.
Yes, a tad. But how big a tad? Or is Amazon making mountain out of a mole hill?
… or river out of a stream?
Amazon looks bad in this, especially since it’s been TC’ed. It’s their fault.
Most corporates are the same, legal departments looking for something to do.
excellent point. i had the same thoughts.
Yeah, that sounds logical, but that’s not the way trademark law works. P+G has built an empire of products on common words and would prevail if anybody even attempted to put out a toothpaste called, let’s say, Drest, or Grest, or Brest. It’s been that way long before the Internet came around.
Goes to show how screwed up the system is. Where is the logic to laws that give a company exclusive rights to use the name of a river that has existed for ages?
I wish for Amazee that they can keep their name. I really like it and I don’t confuse it at all with Amazon. Shame on Amazon for suing them.
The poll on Amazee’s site doesn’t make sense at all from a market research perspective. Amazee’s user will certainly not confuse it with Amazon, they are their users already, aren’t they?
However, from an emotional and promotioanl perspective, it makes sense and may help them.
There’s been a fair few cases like this one on the similarity of brand names and the area goes into much more detail than you might think.
‘Zymerys’ vs ‘Zynerit’ acne creams is one, but another more recognisable case was brought about by McDonalds after they claimed that they had the right to the Mc- prefix.
As well as surveys questioning consumer’s beliefs on the conotations associated with the brand name, acoustic analysis is often used to test the similarity.
Why are these big companies so insecure? This is Amazon calling its users stupid. Like we are so stupid we won’t know the difference. Like we won’t know the difference between amazon and amazee… Trust your users to have brains Amazon…
Amazee is a social collaboration website. There is thematically nothing related to Amazon and Amazee except the name. There is also no chance of visitors confusing it as an Amazon initiative. Why would Amazon mess up with its name and give it undue popularity?
Maybe, if Amazon is too bothered about Amazee, it can send a mail to its users saying, there has be such and such patent/logo for something to be an Amazon initiative or just bluntly say, Amazee is not ours
It is a social collaboration websiteI think Amazon is giving undue importance to a start up who has turned against it and is using it a promo vehicle.
check this guy out. http://twitter.com/hookk . Interesting concept. Documenting the launch and making of news site in real time. Pretty cool concept for a site.
Just a clever attempt by Amazee to gain some Notororiety (oops Popularity) at the expense of Amazon.
Amazon does not have any trademark that covers all trademarks that start with AMAZ and are followed by a vowel. Amazon’s action is completely without any merit. One really needs to be slightly retarded to confuse Amazon with Amazee.
Boycotting Amazon until that matter is resolved might be the only language Amazon understands.
if it was amazoe i could see their point…lol if they really cared they would have bought every domain starting in “amaz” years ago
A sign of these fascist times. Last time I checked, Amazon was a word in the dictionary and been there for many hundreds of years. These corporations are out of control. Time to roll in the guillotines.
this is the kind of nonsense that makes one hate a company like Amazon. This is the real Jeff Bezos showing his stripes.
Amazing… looks like Amazon owns the english language… I sure hope this story will seriously damage Amazon’s brand!
The old story that bad news is still good news is definitely working here. Whether or not Amazee is forced to change its name, or even decides to change its name, Amazon has done it a great favor. Look at all the publicity that they are getting.
http://www.less...ch.blogspot.com
Robin,
You can’t appeal a domain registration, you can file a dispute through UDRP or a lawsuit.
We’re talking trademark registrations here, though.
It doesn’t matter Robin, you can’t appeal a domain registration it is a simple fact. You can file a dispute through the UDRP process or file a lawsuit.
If you need confirmation of this go ask some of the big domainers out there or DomainNameWire. There is no process out there to “appeal a domain registration.”
huh? we’re not talking about appealing a domain registration, we’re talking trademark registrations!
Brazil will sue Amazon for using their jungle’s name.
Ok, this crap has to stop. So companies now want their name plus anything similar?
This is two characters different. Next it will be three. Then four….etc.
If your brand can be diluted by a similar name then you must not be doing your job.
Amazon you are an idiot!
Sorry, but you’re all missing how trademarks work. Amazon, in fact, has a legal obligation to try and block any proposed trademark that has any chance at all of being even slightly confusing to the marketplace at large.
I know from experience: I own the trademark for “intuitive.com” (yes, the domain name) and had to fight for two years with Intuit who kept claiming to the USPTO that it would cause confusion in the marketplace. Much $$ later I was finally granted the trademark, but that’s how it works, y’all. Amazon’s not being “mean” or “repressing a little company”, it’s fulfilling its legal requirement as a trademark holder.
You can learn a lot more about trademarks and these sort of issues at http://www.uspto.gov/
They’re trying to block the proposed trademark in the U.S., but they are also aiming to wipe Amazee’s registered trademark in Switzerland from the list. Furthermore, they only made a move after the opposition period expired.
Hardly just fulfilling their legal requirements as a TM holder, if you ask me.
Dave,
We all know how (IT) works. But, that’s not the point. The argument is about right and wrong.
You wouldn’t be posting in this manner had your TM not been granted.
These bullies in guise of a corporate entity need to be taught a lesson.
amazon get a life . no way in hell they win this in a court.
Many years ago I saw an advert link to amazon.com.
(Many years ago? Right? OK?)
I assumed it was just another themed porn website,
probably muscular women, probably not with bows
and a missing boob.
They should take this as an opportunity to change their stupid name
I get so confused every time I go to the Amazon website looking for pictures of lush jungle and untamed wilderness. they should change their name immediatly. someone should write to the United Nations about it or something.
what a waste of time – but we all get excited anyway!
What do the Brazilians think of their river becoming a trademarked phrase?
What if there was an “Amazon bookshop” on the “Amazon” in Brazil?
yes goodd..
yes………
haha
Want to know what Brazil thinks of this?
Take a look at amazon.com.br (the Brazilian extension)
Yup. The Amazon Corporation.
…. but NOT the same one!
Thanks a lot everybody for your support, thoughts and criticism. We appreciate your input and are overwhelmed by the general response! Cheers!