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Germany Orders Amazon To Stop Taking Advantage of People Who Can't Spell 'Birkenstock' (qz.com)
Germany has barred Amazon from drawing in online shoppers who misspell iconic German sandal maker Birkenstock in their Google searchers. "Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Brikenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok' in Google AdWords, so that they produced search results for shoes sold in Amazon.com," reports Quartz. From the report: According to Reuters, Birkenstock turned to the court because it feared shoppers might unwittingly buy shoddy counterfeits, which could damage its brand reputation. "For us, Amazon is complicit," Birkenstock chief Oliver Reichert told German magazine Der Spiegel, according to Reuters. Birkenstock first walked away from Amazon.com in July 2016. Besieged by counterfeits and rogue merchants, the company said it would no longer supply products to Amazon for U.S. customers starting Jan. 1, 2017. "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an 'open market,' creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand," David Kahan, Birkenstock's CEO for the Americas, wrote in a memo at the time.
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
Birkenstock doesn't sell on amazon precisely because of a falling out in which it claims amazon doesn't effectively prevent counterfeiters on amazon's own marketplace.
Then why is there an "Amazon Birkenstock Store"?
https://www.amazon.com/Birkens...
Really, the court ruling is idiotic. If Amazon cannot book those words, some counterfeiter will. And what permutations, exactly, counts as a misspelling? What about other names, where there are many legitimate spellings?
That said, Amazon has really shot itself in the foot with it's 3rd party marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the crap, the potential crap, and the legitimate products. Personally, and precisely for this reason, I order a lot less from Amazon than I used to.
This.
And, for example, Apple reportedly did an investigation of all the "Genuine Apple" AC adapters on Amazon, and found something like 90% or more were bootleg, non-Apple parts.
And lest you think they were doing that just to promote sales of their own stuff, they started the investigation because of a rash of Trashed iOS and Mac equipment, where the AC adapter had destroyed the gear.
Unlike patents or copyrights, trademarks and brand registrations require the owner to actively defend them. So Birkenstock actually didn't have a choice of going after Amazon or not, and neither would it in going after counterfeiters.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I love how Birkenstock's position is that apparently everyone can spell their name properly and if you can't you were looking for counterfeits. Birkenstock themselves should have already had these AdWords pointing to their own store because misspellings happen and they're refusing customers over it, which is honestly a form of commercial elitism I've never seen before, so polite golf clap for you Birkenstock.