3 ms·
> AWS Partner Network > AWS won’t even let partners use the word “partner” in some cases. When it comes to joint engineering or co-development, AWS won’t let p
by AaronFriel 7y ago
> AWS Partner Network
> AWS won’t even let partners use the word “partner” in some cases. When it comes to joint engineering or co-development, AWS won’t let partners use the words “partner,” “partnership,” “partnering” or “alliance,” opting for terms like “agreement,” “teamed,” or “in cooperation” instead.
The not very cynical take is, the person(s) responsible for this had too wide a mandate to dictate language and went overboard.
The cynical take is that this puts partners into a position where they almost certainly will violate the guidelines. This is like making jaywalking a crime. If you make something everyone does a crime, you can selectively prosecute the people you don't like, so language like this makes it easy to tell any partner offering services AWS doesn't like they're violating the rules.
The conversation will go something like this:
(Satire follows.)
Partner: How can we get right with AWS?
Amazon: Well, easy, you just need to stop advertising that you're partners.
Partner: So after we went to the effort of forming an agreement with Amazon and becoming partners, we can't advertise it? Advertising our services as partners helps drive new customers our way!
Amazon: Well, that seems like a you problem. It's plain as day, the rules say you can't advertise yourselves as partners in the AWS Partner Network brand guidelines.
Partner: What about $other_partners?
Amazon: We can't comment on our relationship with other individuals or businesses, have a great day!
- redwood 7y agoThere's really nothing new here. This is effectively in line with how they operate.
- dbcurtis 7y agoHere is the thing. The word "partner" is legal velcro. Amazon does not want a judge to determine that you are a PARTNER of Amazon's in the legal sense of the word. Even calling it the "Amazon Partner Network" is profoundly stupid, IMHO. Partner means a different thing in contract litigation than it does in casual English usage.
- OnlineGladiator 7y agoThen Amazon shouldn't call it the AWS Partner Network. They chose that name themselves.
- lonelappde 7y agoWhy don't Microsoft Lawyers know this? https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/ https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/ Nor Oracle? https://www.oracle.com/partners/index.html https://www.oracle.com/partners/index.html Nor Google? https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9028757?hl=en https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9028757?hl=en The actual reason is that Amazon doesn't want anyone making a buck of Amazon's name. They are ruthless about capturing all the value in a relationship. Amazon does things like require 1+yr free trials of enterprise software and charging for the privilege of not being under NDA.
- dbcurtis 7y agoGuess what! My wife is a lawyer at Oracle. And she knows. And guess what else? Marketing owns the wording of marketing collateral, and can ignore the advice of the lawyers, and then the lawyers get to clean up the resulting problems.
- resoluteteeth 7y agoBut Amazon is calling the other companies partners; they're just asking the other companies not to use that term. If Amazon was mainly worried that a judge would interpret partner in the legal sense, wouldn't it be more concerned about its own use of the word?