.Music, .Song, and .Tunes fresh top level domain name objections against Amazon.com dismissed
Amazon.com prevails in dispute over three music related top level domain names.
An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has ruled against the American Association of Independent Music’s (A2IM) community objections to Amazon.com’s bids to run the .music, .song, and .tunes domain names.
A2IM is backing a rival bid for .music by Constantinos Roussos.
A2IM filed objections against seven rival applications for .music. Each case will certainly be different. For example, the instant one included discussion of Amazon.com’s plans to keep the domains closed. But if the panelists hearing the other .music cases have the same interpretations as the panelist in this case, then it’s likely that all of the .music objections will fail.
Panelist Francisco Orrego Vicuña noted that the community A2IM seeks to represent is overly broad, containing billions of people. Even if you believe that the community was clearly delineated, A2IM would fail to actually represent the community, Vicuña’s determined.
“The very existence of a clearly delineated community is doubtful as any meaningful formal boundaries will be too broad and difficult to identify,” he wrote.
He also wrote that the objector provided “weak” evidence of an ongoing relationship with a clearly delineated community.
The level of global recognition of the Objector is in the Expert’s view very limited. While there is reference to some associations of an international scope this does not mean that it is the Objector that has qualified as a globally recognized institution. In fact, as the Applicant has noted, the Objector would be rather related to the “American” music industry and not to a global level of recognition.
Vicuña also ruled that A2IM had not proven a likelihood of damages to the community it purports to represent.
A2IM claimed that Amazon.com could abuse its market position by controlling the domain names. But Vicuña pointed out that, ought to there by market power abuse, then both the objector and other parties could certainly bring grievances to the appropriate government authorities.
Regardless of whether you believe the panelist got the various points of the case correct, it’s fairly easy to argue that this decision contradicts the decision in the .sport case. It would seem both .music and .sport are rather broad, representing millions of people. Now separate panelists have ruled that one is a clearly delineated community while the other is not.
