> Amazon.com has requested that we shut down the site and discontinue use of their logos and graphics.

Soooo yeah, companies have things called "trademarks" and "copyrights"... you can't just go putting another company's name inside your company's name, and then make your imagery the same as theirs, without their lawyers sending you a strongly worded C&D. However I don't see why this would have to shut down based on that -- why not restart under a new, distinct name and branding?

Not sure what they were expecting using "amazon" in the name.

Not to mention "their logos and graphics"...

Definitely filing this one under the "No Shit" category.

To their credit, they didn't sound very surprised or disappointed about getting shut off.

See my comment below about what we were expecting

I'm genuinely curious as to how the site owners expected to not find themselves in a precarious legal position using this name/imagery. Care to enlighten us?

We were hoping that they wouldn't mind since we made it very clear that we were not affiliated with them.

Yes, it's true, they probably would not have cared as much if we weren't using their name and referring to their logo. But ultimately we were a service that sold Amazon gift cards, so it was always going to be up to them if they wanted to let us continue to exist or not. We decided to give it a shot and see what happened.

Seems like it would be fairly easy to rebrand yourself as just a place to buy gift cards with bitcoins... and then only offer Amazon gift cards for now (or forever if you don't/can't make it work with other gift cards).

bitcard.ly would be apt.

> We were hoping that they wouldn't mind

I really don't think you understand how trademarks work.

If you willingly let your trademark be diluted, you will lose control over it. Amazon had absolutely no choice about shutting you down. That they shut you down was a completely foregone conclusion from the start. It's not about whether they mind what you are doing or not, it's about whether they lose exclusive access to their trademark. Had they not shut you down, and let you run for long enough, anyone could have used your existence as a point in their favor at court when arguing about using the Amazon name.

> Amazon had absolutely no choice about shutting you down.

This is not true at all. Amazon could have issued them a trademark license.

"we made it very clear that we were not affiliated with them"

I'd say that there were probably better ways to make this clear.

Do you still think it was a good place to start?

You were told this would happen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5358720

Why are you shutting down instead of rebranding?

Is this caused by the link with bitcoins, or is it simply because they used "amazon" in the name?

Quite obvious that it has to do with trademark infringement.

It's mostly because we used their logos. It didn't help that they had just released Amazon Coins themselves...

Apart from the request of removing their logos, Amazon also requested that "[you] shut down the site". Is this because of the specific business model you had, or only because of the domain name? If it is only because of the domain: Do you have any plans on continuing this service?

What did AmazonBitCoins do? I'm assuming allowed you to buy things from Amazon using BC?

Had their website been called buywithbitcoin.com or something similar, they would probably still be around.

They used Amazon's name/logo. What did they think was going to happen?

We allowed you to buy Amazon gift cards with Bitcoins

Damn, this was one of the only reasons I have a machine in the corner churning bitcoins. I liked being able to directly swap them for Amazon credit.