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It absolutely is. Trademarks can be enforced only in a specific context e.g. I can use "amazon" as a name for my cat or a restaurant but not an online marketpl

It absolutely is. Trademarks can be enforced only in a specific context e.g. I can use "amazon" as a name for my cat or a restaurant but not an online marketplace. Giving a whole TLD to a brand name is like giving an infinitely broad context to trademark.

icebraining 8y ago
How is that different than giving them Amazon.com?
- kadendogthing 8y ago
  Well, because the .com TLD is meant for commercial use. Amazon owns the commercial trademark in basically every market that has such laws.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Amazon has a commercial trademark on some specific areas of commerce. There are many other Amazon trademarks owned by other people, even in the US alone.
    - kadendogthing 8y ago
      Sure. But you asked how it was different. Amazon has a domain name under a commercial TLD, .com. It doesn't have it's brand as a TLD, nor should anyone. Amazon does have a very good claim to make that in the commercial space, people associate the word "amazon" with the company. It might not always be that way, but right now that is a very reasonable claim. If you think someone else should have amazon the domain, no one should have amazon, or whatever else, that's a nifty conversation to have. But it's not what is being discussed.
      - icebraining 8y ago
        They're both domains, I'm asking why should they be treated differently, just because they're at different levels. The reason given was that the context was too broad, but so is the "commercial" context across the whole world. If Amazon should have the second level domain because it's the most well know association of the word at the commerce level, then why shouldn't it be given the top level domain if it has the most well known association of the word, period?
        tomjakubowski 8y ago
        > If Amazon should have the second level domain because it's the most well know association of the word at the commerce level, then why shouldn't it be given the top level domain if it has the most well known association of the word, period? The second question is a lot wider in scope and harder to answer, for one. It's usually beneficial to narrow scope to make problems easier to solve.
        icebraining 8y ago
        Then why stop at one? Let's have three or four. They can get "amazon.retail.com.us", while the river can get "amazon.river.geo.america", etc.
        ryanlol 8y ago
        Easy test that might give us a hint, compare the google search results between '"amazon.com" -site:amazon.com' '"the amazon" OR "amazon rainforest" OR "amazon river"' At least on google, amazon.com returns vastly more stuff. Hell, even '"Amazon" AND "Bezos"' gets way more hits than '"amazon rainforest" OR "amazon river"' Obviously this is far from conclusive, but it's something. Google trends might also be an useful tool. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22the%20amazon%22,%22amazon.com%22,amazon%20bezos,amazon%20river,amazon%20rainforest https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22the%20amazon%2... Seems like people search for "the amazon" about as often as they search for amazon and bezos together, worldwide.
        kadendogthing 8y ago

icebraining 8y ago

How is that different than giving them Amazon.com?

kadendogthing 8y ago
Well, because the .com TLD is meant for commercial use. Amazon owns the commercial trademark in basically every market that has such laws.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Amazon has a commercial trademark on some specific areas of commerce. There are many other Amazon trademarks owned by other people, even in the US alone.
  - kadendogthing 8y ago
    Sure. But you asked how it was different. Amazon has a domain name under a commercial TLD, .com. It doesn't have it's brand as a TLD, nor should anyone. Amazon does have a very good claim to make that in the commercial space, people associate the word "amazon" with the company. It might not always be that way, but right now that is a very reasonable claim. If you think someone else should have amazon the domain, no one should have amazon, or whatever else, that's a nifty conversation to have. But it's not what is being discussed.
    - icebraining 8y ago
      They're both domains, I'm asking why should they be treated differently, just because they're at different levels. The reason given was that the context was too broad, but so is the "commercial" context across the whole world. If Amazon should have the second level domain because it's the most well know association of the word at the commerce level, then why shouldn't it be given the top level domain if it has the most well known association of the word, period?
      - tomjakubowski 8y ago
        > If Amazon should have the second level domain because it's the most well know association of the word at the commerce level, then why shouldn't it be given the top level domain if it has the most well known association of the word, period? The second question is a lot wider in scope and harder to answer, for one. It's usually beneficial to narrow scope to make problems easier to solve.
        icebraining 8y ago
        Then why stop at one? Let's have three or four. They can get "amazon.retail.com.us", while the river can get "amazon.river.geo.america", etc.
        ryanlol 8y ago
        Easy test that might give us a hint, compare the google search results between '"amazon.com" -site:amazon.com' '"the amazon" OR "amazon rainforest" OR "amazon river"' At least on google, amazon.com returns vastly more stuff. Hell, even '"Amazon" AND "Bezos"' gets way more hits than '"amazon rainforest" OR "amazon river"' Obviously this is far from conclusive, but it's something. Google trends might also be an useful tool. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22the%20amazon%22,%22amazon.com%22,amazon%20bezos,amazon%20river,amazon%20rainforest https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%22the%20amazon%2... Seems like people search for "the amazon" about as often as they search for amazon and bezos together, worldwide.
        kadendogthing 8y ago