Deathmatch: Amazon vs. Amazee

The folks over at Amazon are less than happy with Swiss startup Amazee, a social collaboration service - so much so that Amazon wants them to change their name.

This battle has been going on for a while, but Amazee is now escalating things by using stronger verbiage than they have in the past, stating that ‘peaceful and cooperative efforts to reach an amicable solution’ have led to nothing.

Amazon thinks that consumers could be confused by the fact that the two names are similar and erroneously assume that the two companies are related. Amazee, however, maintains that the name is derived from the word ‘amazing’ and alleges that there is zero chance for confusion.

Here is what Amazee has to say about Amazon:

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.

As it stands now, Amazon's lawyers representing their Luxembourg subsidiary are going to demand the removal of Amazee in the Swiss trademark register after waiting for the opposition period to expire. Amazon's attorneys in the U.S., meanwhile, have filed an appeal against the registration of Amazee.

Are people going to be confused by these two domain names?  I don't think so.  If so, Apple should be ready to go after the folks over at MyPhone.

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Technorati Tags: Amazee, Amazon, Domain Names, Trademarks

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