Microsoft Objects to Apple's 'App Store' Trademark Application

[crazy4apple]

Hmm . . . in what mythical future might this happen?

just after apple innovationg something, MS creates the same thing but with signaficantly poory perfomance

 

[rjohnstone]

MS both has trademarks on Windows and tries to enforce them;
http://www.intelproplaw.com/ip_forum/index.php?topic=2562.0

Did you actually READ the post you're linking to?
Microsoft LOST the "Windows" trademark.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

* Submits Patent for "Gas Station" *

Hope it gets approved!!!

As for all the people talking about "Windows" and "Word" you have to keep in mind the computing world back when Windows and Word were introduced. There wasn't a lot of other products like it on the market. Things have changed a lot in the computer world with competition, product availability etc.

 

[b11051973]

Window is not a generic term in the computer industry at the time of trademark.

It’s a common word in a domestic sense.

I agree with this guy. Trying to compare Windows to App Store is ridiculous. App Store is what the thing is. MS's OS is not a window. If MS started suing Anderson Windows for calling what they make windows, then you'd have a case.

 

[Digitalclips]

I hope Apple win and all the copy cats have to rename their stores.

Here are my suggestions

Google: goo store
RIM: bb store
Microsoft: prog store
Nokia: nok store
HP / Palm: pp store
SamSung: ss store

 

[mrboult]

Yeah, Microsoft who trademarked Windows, Word, and other things is complaining against Apple for trademarking a word (not the trademarked version) that Apple essentially created. Almost no one was using app with regularity before Apple used it (Apple started in OS X with their .app packages). Besides, app could be short for Apple and not application. If anyone has claim over it, Apple does.

I agree.

The question is does anyone feel they were regularly using the word App to describe applications/programs before the launch of the iOS App store.

I would be interested to know how Steve Jobs referred to the iphone's Apps in his keynote for the original iPhone unveil? When the iOS App store was still a year away? Did he call them Apps? Or did hem call them Applications or Programs?

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I hope Apple win and all the copy cats have to rename their stores.

Here are my suggestions

Google: goo store
RIM: bb store
Microsoft: prog store
Nokia: nok store
HP / Palm: pp store
SamSung: ss store

I see what you are trying to do however "App" is not in reference to the first three letters of Apples name, its short for "Application".

Courtesy of Wikipedia
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. It helps to solve problems in the real world. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software, and media players.

 

[Digitalclips]

* Submits Patent for "Gas Station" *

Hope it gets approved!!!

As for all the people talking about "Windows" and "Word" you have to keep in mind the computing world back when Windows and Word were introduced. There wasn't a lot of other products like it on the market. Things have changed a lot in the computer world with competition, product availability etc.

But you don't think that all the copy cats were deliberately copying Apple? If they were not perhaps they would have actually tried to think of a name of their own. They were jumping on the Apple success coat tails, pure and simple.

 

[omyard]

Why does MS need to call their store an app store? Just call it Windows Phone Store / Marketplace and move on. It seems like all the other companies don't care so why does MS have to make a stink about it?

Make your press release "we're adding new apps/applications to our store/marketplace all the time, blah, blah, blah" and call it a day.

Suppose if you have lawyers sitting there on the payroll you might as well have them do some work no matter how trivial.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I've talked to a couple people that thought "app" was short for "Apple", and a few of my friends didn't realize it was short for anything - just thought it was some new word.

 

[el-John-o]

This single post was what started the sway in my opinion. At first I was in agreement with MS. But then I thought about it. I've never heard of the term "app" before OS X's Mail.app. Then I heard it in reference to other runnable packages in OS X. The app store seems like a play on App[le] and App[lication]. The Apple Application Store. I think anyone else trying to use this mark is trying to say that their store is just like Apple's Application stores. Therefore I now agree totally with Apple on this issue.

Just because a term become synonymous with the public for a class of product, Hover, Chorox, Hersey, etc, doesn't mean the trademark holder losses right to his trademark.

It's one of those "inventing the wheel" situations though. Clorox (though maybe it's just me, I always call it bleach, I don't call it Clorox, but I know people that do so I'll give it to you) might be a household name but it's not quite the same thing, it's not a play on an industry standard. It's like the Internal Combustion Engine, the guys at Mercedes Benz who invented it, imagine if they trademarked it, yes they named it first but c'mon, am I supposed to drive a Ford with a "Vroom Vroom" or a Toyota with a "Chug-A-Lug 3000" or a Chevy with an "It works sometimes"? I think it's the same situation here, they have coined a new industry, and in the spirit of open and free commerce, they don't get to name it. Well they do, but they don't get to retain ownership. If they called the the iApp Store, that would be one thing, then Microsoft can call it the Windows App Store, and so on and so forth. But App Store is in a different class than Clorox (which is a brand name, not a product name, your not comparing Apple to Apples)

Basically, Clorox can be Clorox, but they can't trademark Bleach, even though they very well may have been the first ones to call it that! Apple can have an Apple App Store, and they can trademark Apple, but App Store? That's pushing it.

In the end though, it's a fight between the companies, I don't think the consumer will really care. Chances are they will use and stick with one platform, most buy one without researching the other, become an instant fanboy and turn a blind eye to the others (I know an Android guy like that who was convinced the iPhone still didn't have 3G), so he will forever call it the Android Marketplace, he knows what it is, there will be very little gains from calling it the App Store.

-John

 

[Digitalclips]

I see what you are trying to do however "App" is not in reference to the first three letters of Apples name, its short for "Application".

Courtesy of Wikipedia
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. It helps to solve problems in the real world. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software, and media players.

I wasn't trying to do anything other than look for horrible names actually, nothing deeper. (hint pp)

 

[ssdeg7]

I don't think this is a battle Apple should win, it's ridiculous the amount of trademarks in these days, there's a trademark for everything, and when you want to use somehow a descriptive name for anything you can't because there's a patent on that.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I agree.

The question is does anyone feel they were regularly using the word App to describe applications/programs before the launch of the iOS App store.

I would be interested to know how Steve Jobs referred to the iphone's Apps in his keynote for the original iPhone unveil? When the iOS App store was still a year away? Did he call them Apps? Or did hem call them Applications or Programs?

I guess I could sue Apple. At my current job we have a software repository called "Insert Company Name Here Apps" that has been in existence for around 10 years (it hosts our Citrix applications.)

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

I hope Apple win and all the copy cats have to rename their stores.

If would probably be better for everyone if it wasn't possible to trademark things like this, but that's mostly due to the fact that companies can become really abusive and oppressive when they want to be.

The saving grace here is that if Apple did receive this trademark (there's a good chance they won't, I wager) the only real result will be its competitors coming up with their own names for their own stores, and that distinction isn't going to hurt anyone.

 

[deadkennedy]

I can't think of even one example of the usage "App Store" or "There's an App for that" before Apple started doing it. So while competitors such as Microsoft might be irritated that they didn't think of it first, Apple really was first. Microsoft wants to copy Apple now and is annoyed that they can't call their store an App Store. Sour grapes.

But if I were Microsoft, I would object too. That is what you do in trademark matters. If you don't, your competitor will win the argument.

Google Apps?

 

[Franciturci]

Am I wrong or the full name of the store is Mac App Store?
http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store/

In that case the whole discussion would be pointless, I think.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

Is'nt the term app just a shortening if the word application, but used as an "urban dictionary" type word (not an actual word just like slang or somthing). So I see both positions as entirely valid but the patent office has to decide just that.

 

[q64ceo]

Lest we forget the past...

Google "GEM" and the word "app". You will see it being in use since the mid 80s. Apple was not the first one to use the term "app" when discussing Applications.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

But you don't think that all the copy cats were deliberately copying Apple? If they were not perhaps they would have actually tried to think of a name of their own. They were jumping on the Apple success coat tails, pure and simple.

Apple must have been copying other companys as well. We have had Application developers (App Dev) for years whos main job is creating Virtualization.

Anyone ever heard of AppV?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_App-V

App-V = 2006
App Store = 2008

 

[deadkennedy]

Although eventually WSJ got it correct, they got their predictions wrong several times.. can't remember when they first predicted the Verizon iPhone, I think they said it was supposed to come out last summer lol.

Did you actually READ the post you're linking to?
Microsoft LOST the "Windows" trademark.

You didn't actually expect from a fanboi to read the article?

 

[Mister Snitch]

What this actually says about Microsoft is incredible, yet not unexpected. It says they cannot think of anything except what Apple has already done. Even the simple choice of a name like this is beyond them, despite the fact that others have managed just fine.

How about 'Windows App Market'? That took about two seconds. Not a fabulous name, of course, but if MS had gotten there first, they'd have had the best name. But they didn't, so they didn't.

This will get laughed out of court. Laughed.

 

[NewYorkRanger]

They should have just called it the Apple Store or any variation of that - (App)le Store, App-le Store, etc.

Also agree that it is totally a generic name, should not be trademarked.

 

[plathunter]

Just because a term become synonymous with the public for a class of product, Hover, Chorox, Hersey, etc, doesn't mean the trademark holder losses right to his trademark.

Um yes it does mean the trademark holder losses right to his trademark its called genericized trademark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

 

[nylonsteel]

oh msft - just let it go - you already have a big chunk of the os market