Amazon seems to not taking too kindly to registrants with domain names that include the word ââ¬Åkindleââ¬Â Blogoscoped reports. According to their report, Jason Schramm registered the domain name KindleReport.com some time ago to report on Amazonââ¬â¢s ebook, the Kindle. Jason obviously likes Amazon, as he has an Amazon Affiliates account. But, Amazonââ¬â¢s lawyers have sent Jason a letter more or less saying he should cease and desist from using any domain name including the term ââ¬Åkindleââ¬Â.
The letter includes:
Please note that we do not allow anyone with a URL containing the word ââ¬Åamazon,ââ¬Â any other trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, any misspelling of the word ââ¬Åamazonââ¬Â and/or numerical variants to participate in the Associate Program … Such use violates Amazon.comââ¬â¢s trademark, proprietary and other rights.
Amazon have said Jason has ten days to transfer the domain name or they will cancel his associates account forthwith.
So while Amazonââ¬â¢s lawyers seem a little heavy handed, it is most likely Jason is in the wrong if push comes to shove. But is the bad PR resulting from such heavy handed attempts to wrest back domain names including trademarked terms worth it?
To read the original posting on Blogoscoped, see blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-08-n81.html