ICANN: Amazon Is Also A Region

Not likely to be the owner of .amazon

In what seems to be the second most popular news item of the day here in the US – second to the arrival of the UK’s newest royal – the Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN has recommended against approving Amazon.com’s application for the top level domain .amazon.  [Says Merpel: Poor Amazon.com, first some of its gTLD applications were targeted on the basis of anticompetition, and now on the basis of geographical indications.]  The GAC’s recommendation is in response to an objection submitted by a group of Latin American countries through which the Amazon River runs.  [ICANN is entitled to ignore or overrule the GAC's recommendation, but it is not expected to do so in this instance.] 

This Amazon has been around longer

The objecting countries sent a letter to the GAC, reported here by the New York Times, in which they remind the GAC that, “[i]n particular ‘.amazon’ is a geographic name that represents important territories of some of our countries, which have relevant communities, with their own culture and identity directly connected with the name.”  Amazon.com is not alone in discovering that its application is opposed because of a connection to a geographic region. The apparel company Patagonia withdrew its application for .patagonia because of objections from Latin American countries. 

These tussles over brand names that double as geographical indicators makes this Kat wonder: who should become the owner, if anyone, of gTLDs that incorporate geographical indicators?  The .amazon application objection was jointly filed by a coalition of countries including Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru. Would they seek to own and manage .amazon together?  Or compete with each other for the right to ownership? Similarly, who should own .champagne or .roquefort, which are both regions and product classifications? 

This Kat thinks that ICANN will have a difficult job deciding which applicant is most deserving of gTLDs for which multiple applicants have applied, and she would love to hear reader thoughts on the fairest methods ICANN might employ to assign gTLDs.