Ruling: Amazon Can’t Own ‘.Amazon’

Amazon is facing rough waters in its quest to claim “.Amazon.” A committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit organization overseeing the Internet’s top-level domain names, recommended against allowing “.Amazon” to be controlled by the Seattle company.

Amazon had hoped to win control over the domain as “a unique and dedicated platform for Amazon,” and as “a further platform for innovation” and, ultimately, to “support the business goals of Amazon.” However, ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee recommended against Amazon taking control of the domain, perhaps in part because of objections from Latin American countries served by the Amazon River, said Nao Matsukata, chief executive of domain-name advisory firm FairWinds Partners, who is attending ICANN’s meeting in Durban, South Africa.