AMAZON fiercely enforces its brand name.

The online retailer, which has come under fire for avoiding paying tax on its British sales, has forced Newcastle-based developers Merchant Place Developments to re-think the name of its business park in Newton Aycliffe,  County Durham.

The park is where Hitachi Rail Europe's train factory will open in 2016.

Merchant director Geoff Hunton revealed that the site, originally called Amazon Park, will now be known as Merchant Park.

"When we set off on this five years ago, our advisors chose Amazon Park because of the Amazon Forest and this was a green area - it was green, it was big, it was bright and it's beautiful," he explained.

"Unfortunately, a year later, Amazon books thought we might decide to start selling books from here or we might use their branding. I didn't realise Amazon have licence on the branding worldwide.

"But very amicably, over the past five years, we've agreed to change the name of the park to Merchant."

Mr Hunton is correct when he says that, ultimately, the name of the site doesn't really matter - it's about the jobs and wealth it creates for our region. But two things shocked me about this farcical story.

One is that Amazon would go to such lengths to ensure its customers didn't confuse a train factory with the world's biggest online bookstore.

Equally mystifying is that Merchant Place's marketing advisors were inspired to name a patch of land in County Durham after the world's largest tropical rainforest. Have they ever visited Aycliffe?

DURHAM Tees Valley Airport hopes the Government backs its latest bid for public funding.

Airport bosses insist that failure to win money from the latest round of the Regional Growth Fund will not signal the end for the troubled site, but you wonder where they would go next if Nick Clegg sends them a rejection letter later this month.

They claim that efforts are being made to attract new flights to popular destinations but industry insiders have told me that is not likely to happen in the near future - if it happens at all.

So, the bid to turn part of the site into a business park for aviation related industries to bring in some much-needed revenue makes sense.
If plans get the go ahead Durham Tees Valley could become home to one of the biggest aircraft recycling businesses in Europe. Boeing 747s will be landing on a regular basis before they are stripped for spares and scrap.

It might not have a bright future as a passenger site but as the end of the line for decommissioned planes DTV might have finally found its slot.  

IF you want your start-up to secure a steady stream of funding dont go on BBC's Dragons' Den programme, a new report says.

Almost two thirds of companies that appeared in front of the panel that includes Duncan Bannatyne said a boost in their profile following their TV exposure didn't help them source further funding.

Most businesses that pitched to the Dragons, and are still trading, are relying on self-finance, despite the availability of potential funding alternatives, according to research from pensionledfunding.com

It also said that more than a third of respondents who appeared in the Den received an offer from the Dragons, but, after shaking hands, 58 per cent of these deals fell down for contractual reasons, or because the Dragon retracted the offer.

I'm out, as they say.

Follow me on Twitter @bizecho