According to a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board filing submitted late last week, Amazon Technologies Inc. is opposing the registration of the mark “AWS MUSIC.” The filing says that consumers are likely to be confused, mistaken, or deceived into believing that the goods offered by applicant Aidan W. Schmall under the AWS MUSIC mark emanate from or are in some way endorsed by Amazon.
The 103-page opposition contends that Amazon is a multinational company which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. For nearly two decades, the company has provided cloud services from global data centers under the brand name Amazon Web Services, also referred to as AWS. The term AWS is both used alone and in conjunction with other trademarks, the filing says.
It further explains that Amazon is the owner of 50 domestic registrations and pending trademark applications for its AWS Marks, covering a wide-range of goods and services. Because of the company’s continuous use of those marks since 2002, and its substantial investment in advertising and promotion, the AWS Marks are arguably famous, with consumers recognizing them as uniquely associated with Amazon.
The filing also highlights the opposer’s “Amazon Music” mark, and associated therewith its offerings, including “entertainment services, namely, providing a website featuring non-downloadable audio recordings, video recordings, music, music videos, albums, artists, songs, related film clips, photographs, and other multimedia materials in the fields of music in International Class 41.”
The proposed AWS MUSIC mark will interfere with Amazon’s extant marks because it is slated to sell similar services to overlapping classes of purchasers, Amazon argues. In addition, the opposer’s marks and the applicant’s mark are so similar in appearance and commercial impression that they are likely to cause consumer confusion, mistaken, or deception.
Finally, the opposition cites concerns that the applicant will diminish the distinctive value of Amazon’s marks and that registration of the proposed mark will allow the applicant to freeride on Amazon’s hard-won goodwill. As such, Amazon requests that the court refuse the application and sustain its objection.
Amazon is represented by K&L Gates.
