[atomon]

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.

[jack-r-abbit]

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).

[hkmurakami]

bitcard.ly would be apt.

[Tuna-Fish]

> 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.

[rlpb]

> Amazon had absolutely no choice about shutting you down.

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

[illuminate]

"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.

[rhizome]

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