In the beginning of 2020, .AMAZON was delegated as the Amazon brand domain. The decision followed the company’s many-year battle with the countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO): Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Colombia, Peru, Surinam and Ecuador. ACTO tried to stop the awarding of the domain to Amazon, but was unable to present compelling arguments, while the long negotiations came to an impasse, largely due to the self-defeating position of the Latin American countries and the lack of agreement among them.
But it seems that the spat between Amazon and ACTO has not come to an end yet. ACTO Secretary-General Alexandra Moreira sent a letter to Amazon executives requesting that the list of domain names that cannot be registered in .AMAZON be expanded.
According to Domain Incite, the contract between ICANN and Amazon says that the countries of the Amazon River basin can pick 1,500 strings that are the most important for the natural, cultural and historical heritage of the Amazon region and the relevant domain names will not be registered in the gTLD.
Namely, these were the words “culture,” “heritage,” “forest,” “river,” “rainforest,” the names of indigenous peoples and national symbols. However, Alexandra Moreira wants this list to be significantly expanded. According to ACTO, the names of all cities, villages, mountains and rivers of the Amazon basin, as well as animals, plants, food and other expressions of the Amazon biome, folklore and culture should be left out.
Considering that the Amazon forests are home to tens of thousands of animal and plant species, and that there are 5,500 municipalities in Brazil alone, the list could be practically endless.
