The .amazon Dot Brand

SPECIAL NOTE: The application for the .amazon string is subject to advice not to proceed by ICANN's Government Advisory Committee on the grounds that the peoples of the Amazon region of South America have prior rights to use of the word 'Amazon':

"(The) GAC found consensus to its objection to .amazon after the sole hold-out government, the United States, decided to keep quiet and allow other governments to agree.

"This means that the ICANN board of directors will now be presented with a 'strong presumption' that .amazon should be rejected.

"The objection was pushed for mainly by Brazil, with strong support from Peru, Venezuela and other Latin American countries that share the Amazon region, known locally as Amazonas."

Domain Incite. In the wake of .amazon, IP interests turn on the GAC

Amazon EU S.à r.l. offers the world's biggest selection of products to buy online, from books to toys, from clothes to beauty, from sports to movies. It also offers various online services and sells its own e-reader, the Kindle.

Amazon currently operates a multitude of websites such as Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp and Amazon.cn.

The company is seeking to build a unique domain space through .amazon to build innovation, enhance communication and protect its brand integrity and intellectual property.

Amazon is applying for .AMAZON to provide a dedicated platform for stable and secure online communication and interaction. Amazon has several thousand registered intellectual property assets of all types including trademarks, designs, and domain names – we place the protection of our intellectual property as a high priority and we respect the intellectual property of others.

Amazon doesn't provide details about its launch strategy.

A key part of an application for a new gTLD is this component of section 18(b):

What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space in terms of competition, differentiation or innovation?

Amazon's reply to this section makes no mention of competition:

Amazon values the opportunity to be one of the first companies to own a gTLD. A .AMAZON registry will:

• Provide Amazon with additional controls over its technical architecture, offering a stable and secure foundation for online communication and interaction.

• Provide Amazon a further platform for innovation.

• Enable Amazon to protect its intellectual property rights.

Certain geographic country names (excluding, however, "Amazon", since it is not a country) are currently blocked from use at the second level (ie. to the left of the dot) in the new gTLD process.

We imagine that over time, there will be demand from brand gTLDs leading to the development of a standardized process for requesting GAC review and ICANN approval for the release of country and territory names for registration by the Registry Operator when the registry is a single entity registry. When such a process is in place, Amazon expects to apply for the release of country and territory names within .AMAZON.

Amazon makes very clear its aim to operate the .amazon string in exclusivity. The company has very similar applications pending for 76 domain extensions, most of which are common, generic dictionary words. Separate objections have been made to these so-called closed gTLDs, and this key issue is covered in detail by SuperMonopolies.

These objections are quite different in nature to the geographic objection to the .amazon string mentioned above.

.AMAZON will be a single entity registry, with all domains registered to Amazon for use in pursuit of Amazon's business goals. There will be no re-sellers in .AMAZON and there will be no market in .AMAZON domains. Amazon will strictly control the use of .AMAZON domains.

Geographic Dot Brands

Amazon will block from initial registration those reserved country and territory names which are on the ISO 3166-1 list, the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names Technical Reference Manual and the list of UN members (in six languages) prepared by a Working Group.

This is to comply with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement and GAC advice.

Amazon further states that geographic names will not be made available to governments or other official entities.

Because the .AMAZON registry will be a single entity registry and for purposes which serve Amazon's strategic business aims, the reserved names cannot be offered to Governments or other official bodies for their own use as this would conflict with the mission and purpose of the gTLD.

Amazon anticipates that many other dot brand domain applicants will have an interest in obtaining permission from ICANN to deploy geographical domains. As mentioned above, it expects a standardized process for seeking ICANN and GAC approval to emerge. "When such a process is in place, Amazon expects to apply for the release of country and territory names within .AMAZON."

Possible .amazon Brand Domains

Books.amazon
Movies.amazon
Music.amazon
Kids.amazon
Kindle.amazon
Apparel.amazon
Beauty.amazon
Shop.amazon
Search.amazon
Intranet.amazon (specifically named in the application)

Notes

Brand names mentioned on this site are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective corporations. This site claims no association with or endorsement by any of these corporations and their marks are mentioned only to illustrate opinion presented in the public interest.

All quotations on this page are from the respective companies' official ICANN brand TLD applications unless otherwise stated.

Many possible theoretical dot brands are mentioned (in English). There are also countless possibilities in other languages. This has significant potential value for international navigation.

This site is focused on reporting the strategic impact of the brand domains on internet communication, competition and commerce, and some comment is speculative.

It is not a comprehensive overview of what some of the world's largest corporations have chosen to reveal about their plans for the implementation of their proprietary domain strings.

ICANN is particularly concerned with the technical, financial, security and legal issues associated with the new TLDs. These issues are beyond the scope of this website.

For a comprehensive overview of the brand domains and their impact on the web, refer to ICANN's website and the individual applications (large parts of which are publicly published).

If you have a particular interest in an individual company, the public aspects of their applications are available for download via these ICANN links: You can also search a complete list of applicants there.

ICANN new gTLD applications

ICANN official website

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