Amazon Associates Brand Restrictions: Marks, Ads, and Exclusions

Amazon Associates brand restrictions are the mark-and-exclusion rules: what you may not do with Amazon trademarks, domains, handles, and paid-search bids on those marks, plus which products Amazon lists as excluded. This is not “how to write the disclosure sentence.”

This page is Mark-Then-Link. It is not disclosure vs FTC. It is not paid and boosted ads. It is not SiteStripe official links. It is not text vs image creatives. Beginners still owns program fit.

Use Amazon Marks only on your site to advertise products on an Amazon Site, with a matching Special Link. Do not put Amazon trademarks or misspellings in domains or social usernames. Do not bid those marks to send people straight to Amazon. Do not imply Amazon endorses you. Some products are excluded—open Amazon’s exclusions page.

Official pages: Trademark Guidelines. Program Policies (Trademark section and Non-Exhaustive list). Participation Requirements. Excluded Products. Operating Agreement.

Disclosure: Amazon Associates is Amazon’s program. Menus change. Live help wins. CashPilot has not tested your account.

Table of contents

1. Mark-Then-Link
2. Marks, domains, and handles
3. Paid search on marks is not the ads-to-Amazon owner
4. Excluded products (official list only)
5. No fake endorsement
6. Official links
7. FAQ
8. Read the marks page, then place the Special Link

Mark-Then-Link

        MARK-THEN-LINK
  1. MARK    → Amazon Marks only on your site + Special Link
  2. NAME    → no Amazon (or misspelling) in domain / handle / app
  3. BID     → no trademark paid search that lands on Amazon
  4. SKIP    → official excluded ASINs and listed categories
  5. TONE    → no “Amazon endorses / sponsors this site”

The license is narrow. Program Policies say you may use Amazon Marks only by display on your site to advertise that products are available on an Amazon Site, with a corresponding Special Link. Violation of the standalone Trademark Guidelines terminates the license related to those marks. That is Amazon’s wording, not a blog scare line.

If you need a logo Amazon actually offers publishers, the Trademark Guidelines page also describes an “available at Amazon” lockup and says the Amazon logo and Smile mark are not the default for influencers or publishers. Confirm the live artwork rules before you crop a smile into a header.

Marks, domains, and handles

From the Trademark Guidelines (confirm live text):

• Strict compliance is required. Use in violation automatically terminates any license related to your use of the Amazon Marks.
• You must prominently include a statement that Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
• You are not allowed to use any Amazon trademark, or a variant or misspelling, in any domain name or subdomain name. Amazon’s own examples include names in the amaozn.com, amazon.blogspot.com, and johnsamazon.org family. Read the live list; do not invent extra “looks close enough” rules.
• The same ban applies to usernames, group names, or other identifiers on social networking sites (Amazon gives examples such as “Amazon Japan,” “Aammazon,” and handle-style strings). Confirm those examples on the live page you cite.
• The same ban applies to application, plug-in, or other software names.
• Offline use of marks is restricted. The Guidelines say you may not use any Amazon Mark in connection with any offline promotion (they give printed material, mailing, or other document as examples).

Participation Requirements add: you will not display Amazon trademarks except as permitted; you will not use a third-party seller logo on Special Links without that seller’s specific right; you will not do offline promotional activity with Amazon marks, Content, or Special Links as described there—printed material, mailing, SMS, MMS, email or attachment, or oral solicitation.

Program Policies also restrict offline mark use and include their own Trademark Guidelines section. If two official documents read differently on email or SMS, do not pick a favorite on a blog. Open both live pages for your marketplace.

Do not reprint Amazon’s full Non-Exhaustive trademark table here. Program Policies point to that table. Open it on Amazon.

Do not alter a mark Amazon supplies: no recolor, no new font, no extra artwork hanging off the smile. The Guidelines and the Policies section both say the mark must sit with reasonable spacing and not on a background that kills readability.

SiteStripe still owns how you copy a Special Link. A clean tag does not legalize amazon-deals-today.com.

Paid search on marks is not the ads-to-Amazon owner

Program Policies (confirm live): do not bid Amazon trademarks—and misspellings—if the resulting paid search ad is a Prohibited Paid Search Placement. That definition lives in the Commission Income Statement: paid search that sends users directly to Amazon on those marks. The same Policies paragraph says you may buy paid search that sends users to your site, not directly or via a Redirecting Link to an Amazon Site, if you still comply with the Agreement.

That is a trademark-bid rule. It is not the 2026 paid and boosted ads owner. That URL is ads linking to Amazon, including cases where prohibited keywords are unused. If the question is “does a boosted post that points at amazon.com still qualify,” use that page. If the question is “may I buy the word Amazon and land on amazon.com,” stay here and then open the live Non-Exhaustive list.

We will not invent a safe-keyword chart. Amazon tells you to open their trademark table.

Excluded products (official list only)

From Excluded Products (confirm live). CashPilot will not add categories a roundup invented (weapons and similar extras that are not on that page).

Amazon lists:

• Products identified by ASIN on that page (from and after the date listed). Additions are published on that page at least 7 days before the beginning of the month they are first excluded. That publication is your notice.
• Any product or service sold on a site linked from the Amazon Site (Amazon’s examples: Product Ads, banner ad, sponsored link, or other link displayed on the Amazon Site).
• Any wireless service plan offered through the Amazon Site and not sold or fulfilled by Amazon.
• Any product, including games and other applications, sold through the Amazon Appstore for Android.
• Any product sold on fresh.amazon.com.
• Restaurant takeout.
• Any alcoholic beverage product.
• Any digital Kindle product purchased as a subscription (Amazon’s examples: Kindle newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions).

If an ASIN is on that list, do not treat a SiteStripe copy as a commission promise. Text vs image still owns creative type, not eligibility.

No fake endorsement

The Operating Agreement requires this identification, or any substantially similar statement previously allowed: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” Where that sentence sits, and how it relates to an FTC material-connection notice, stays on disclosure vs FTC. This page only needs the next sentence in the same clause: you will not misrepresent or embellish the relationship, including by expressing or implying that Amazon supports, sponsors, or endorses you.

Trademark Guidelines repeat the no-sponsorship / no-endorsement limit. Participation Requirements also say you will not use Content in a way that implies a person’s or company’s endorsement. Place the Special Link. Do not write “official Amazon partner” unless Amazon’s live documents say you may.

Official links

FAQ

Amazon in the domain or handle?

No. Trademark Guidelines bar Amazon marks and misspellings in domains, subdomains, social identifiers, and app names. Read Amazon’s live examples.

How may I show a mark?

On your site, to advertise products on an Amazon Site, with a matching Special Link. Add the trademark statement Amazon specifies. Do not alter the artwork.

Bid the word Amazon?

Not for paid search that sends people straight to Amazon (Prohibited Paid Search Placement). Ads should send people to your site. Ads-to-Amazon disqualify is a different owner.

Which products are excluded?

Only Amazon’s exclusions page: listed ASINs, off-Amazon sites linked from Amazon, some wireless plans, Appstore for Android, Fresh, takeout, alcohol, Kindle subscriptions. No invented extras.

Same as disclosure vs FTC?

No. That owner is the two-notice wording job.

Same as paid/boosted ads?

No. That owner is ads linking to Amazon. This page is marks and exclusions.

Offline or seller logos?

Participation Requirements restrict offline mark/Special Link use as described, and bar third-party seller logos without that seller’s specific right. Confirm live.

“Amazon endorses me”?

No. Operating Agreement: do not imply Amazon supports, sponsors, or endorses you.

Read the marks page, then place the Special Link

Open the Trademark Guidelines, then the Excluded Products list, before you register a domain or paste a Fresh or alcohol ASIN. Use Amazon Marks only next to a real Special Link. Keep paid-search trademark bids off Amazon landings. For the Associates sentence versus FTC placement, use disclosure vs FTC. For boosted units that link to Amazon, use paid and boosted ads.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This page is educational. Official Central help wins.