Amazon.com Attempting to Block U.S. Trademarking of Amazee.com
When put side to side you can see the similarity between Amazon and Amazee, but if we were having a conversation and in one sentence I was talking about buying books on Amazon.com and in another sentence I was talking about a project I was participating in to stop global warming on Amazee.com you would probably never make the connection. Amazee has its roots in ‘amazing’ and Amazon is derived from the name of the largest river in the world, so pronunciations are not even similar. I’ve been aware of Amazee.com since they went into public beta almost a year ago. Amazee is a Swiss based company that positions itself as a social collaboration platform for activists. Basically you can create a project for your favorite cause and gain support and participation from like minded users via a set of collaboration tools and social networking features.
When Amazee first launched I created an account due to my obvious interest in Web 2.0 collaboration and social networking. I’m opted into their mailing list so I get email updates from time to time; never have I once thought of Amazon.com when I saw the Amazee name, until now. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office confirms that Amazon.com has been objecting to Amazee’s trademark attempts since the beginning of this year. “Amazon attorneys say the average person won’t appreciate the differences between Amazon and Amazee, thus leading to consumer confusion between the two brands,” reports The Register. If I was the largest retailer of literature on the Internet I’m not sure if I would want to insinuate that the average person could not recognize the difference in similarly spelled words. In my opinion though not much will probably come of this other than some lawyer bills for both parties and some extra publicity for Amazee.
