What's going on between Amazon and Flintobox?

Keywords are the way to survive in the world of online content. What happens when the rules of this survival are not clearly laid? Often in the blind chase to get the most visitors on the website people bid on keywords. Is everything fair in love and business?

Well, one startup does not agree. Flintobox, a startup for kid's actvivty boxes recently raised its voice pointing the fact that how Amazon is bidding on their brand name as a keyword -while, they are not even listed on Amazon. Flintobox claims that the online retailer has unlawfully used the brand name of the Chennai company as a keyword to drive traffic to its own website.

Why is Amazon interested in bidding on a brand keyword that is not even listed on their website?

Because, Flintobox is becoming a popular urban brand for engaging kids beyond the digital world. It is a monthly activity box service which has many meaningful developmental activities based on a theme every month. The box is carefully curated keeping in mind the age group of the child. So, the brand has a decent search value amidst parents who are looking at the Herculean task of keeping their kids busy.

Hence, it seems like that Amazon did not want to miss out on the traffic that the keyword was generating and drive them to their website instead.

Flintobox version

In a recent blog titled "Google And Amazon – The Sharks That Are Stealing Nemo’s Food #WakeUpAmazon" the CEO of the company Arunprasad Durairaj voices out his fears about the unfair game played by big players. The blog says "Amazon, the biggest online retailer on planet Earth, used Google to steal a prospective buyer of Flintobox, and instead introduced them to some of their (rather irrelevant) products."

The blog takes you through the series of mail exchanges between Google, Amazon and Flintobox regarding the various trademark concerns and bidding of advertisement on Flintobox keyword. Using the hashtag #WakeupAmazon they have now raised a social media war about the said misue of their brand name by Amazon.

Hey @amazonIN! Are you aware that this is happening? #WakeUpAmazon https://t.co/mDJo0xRYUk pic.twitter.com/jeHgr7LrV0

— Flintobox (@flintobox) December 19, 2016

As Flintobox is not listed on any e-commerce portal, hence, they started on this crusade after a failed attempt to settle the matter through e-mails. According to Flintobox, the very idea of using the keyword in Amazon ad-copies was unethical and also illegal.  

In the first response to Flintobox, Amazon followed a standard denial process that these ads are not run by Amazon and that the issue would be forwarded for further investigation. Hence, Flintobox submitted their trademark documents to Google, and finally the misleading ad by Amazon was removed. Furthermore, Google even confirmed that going ahead, no competitor would run ads for the ‘Flintobox’ keyword. The blog clearly showcases all written mode of communication and how the story became even more interesting when Google blocked the keyword for use. Amazon started bidding on another keyword "Flinto Box". Arunprasad shared in his blogpost, "Amazon smartly used Flinto (space) box to exploit Google’s ad policy."  

Amazon's response and course of action The initial email exchanges between Amazon and Flintobox were not fruitful. Flintobox repeatedly received this same automated response from them. Which were just false assurances and obliviousness regarding the said bidding. Amazon in their mails mentioned that "these ads are not being run by Amazon." However, Flintobox finally managed to wake Amazon up and also got them to act. Thanks to their social media campaign #WakeUpAmazon and the blog. Amazon on their response said that it was an automated generated algorithm of keywords and hence they are clueless if they have been using keywords that they have nothing to do with them. Here:

@flintobox Our automated systems pick keywords based on what users search and buy. Amazon follows all copyright and ¼ ^RR — Amazon Help (@AmazonHelp) December 20, 2016

@flintobox trademark policies. We have paused all our ads mentioning the Flintobox brand and variations of the same in our ad 2/4 ^RR

— Amazon Help (@AmazonHelp) December 20, 2016

Hence, they have now stopped bidding on the keyword. This is definitely a little victory for Flintobox.

Future of the Keyword Battle

While recently, Flipkart's Sachin Bansal, Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal also asked for government's help in their battle against Amazon & Uber, it might be interesting to know if there is a possibility of regulation on the world wide web. As far as we know the keyword battle is a difficult turf war - the battleground is prepared but no rules are set for the war.

Arunprasad Durariraj, Founder CEO Flintobox says, "We know the Government’s policies promoting startups are promising.  While the entire country is debating about a possibility of a regulation for foreign companies in India, at this point, I would at least expect a strict enforcement of existing Indian laws."

He adds, "I am sure Amazon could not do something like this in the US and get away with it by saying Äh! Sorry...its just an automated engine that infringed on the trademark!"... they'd pay a price for the mistake.  Then why take the laws and the trademarks & IPs of Indian companies lightly.  In the spirit of healthy competition, I would expect any company, foreign or Indian, to respect the law of the land and other's trademarks & IPs."

While, Flintobox can be one of the few startups, many more such revalations to come. Because, there is no end to the permutations and combinations in which keywords can exist. There are no set rules for this game and websites can take any means to achieve their ends. One needs to know if there is a way to safeguard themselves from such violations.

All said and done, Flintobox has also filed legal notice against Amazon for brand name violation. It is suing the etailer for damages of Rs 10 lakh.

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