Amazon might give fresh TLDs a boost

The firm could drive awareness by using .Amazon.

ICANN moved a big step closer to awarding the .Amazon top level domain name to Amazon.com Friday.

The non-profit domain overseer approved a resolution that moves the top level domain forward against the wishes of Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). Two ACTO member states–Brazil and Peru–originally objected to Amazon’s 2012 application for the domain name. This kicked off a seven-year battle.

The Governmental Advisory Committee formally objected to .Amazon by unanimous consent even though the U.S. representative could have quashed the attempt.

Amazon.com challenged this decision with an Independent Review Process. It won the review in 2017 but it wasn’t over.

Since then it has tried to appease ACTO members to get the organization to drop its challenge. It offered them a $5 million gift card and lots of safeguards.

But ACTO has been stubborn. It often seemed as though it was fighting on principle rather than real concerns. This made it harder for Amazon to overcome objections that were difficult to define.

Amazon made a number of commitments to the member states as part of Public Interest Commitment. That will be open for public comment. Once the public comment period ends, .Amazon could see the light of day.

If Amazon.com uses .Amazon in a robust way it will give a shot in the arm to fresh top level domain name awareness. There’s a big ‘if’ there, though.

Amazon was one of the biggest applicants for fresh top level domains but hasn’t done much with the domains it purchased. But it has used .AWS in some advertising, and the thinking here is that it could do the same with .Amazon but at a bigger scale. It could go much bigger by putting products or categories on their own .Amazon pages. Millions of clients would then see a fresh top level domain.

Or maybe its seven-year battle was just a matter of securing an notable piece of intellectual property.