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I've got to say that Apple does have a point with confusion. My brother-in-law swears that I should go to Android from my iPhone. When I say that its not practical because I'd have to re-purchase hundreds of dollars in apps that I use regularly he swore that they would still work because they're from his AppStore for Andriod.

I'm sure there are a lot of other people who believe that because they have the same name its the same across the devices.

No offense, but what size bus did your brother in-law take to school?
 
Apps -> value add plus lock-in

[...] When I say that its not practical because I'd have to re-purchase hundreds of dollars in apps that I use regularly he swore that they would still work because they're from his AppStore for Andriod.
[...]

Apps make your iPhone vastly more valuable than a phone that only ran built-in apps. But they also give Apple some healthy lock-in power as well. Too hard and/or expensive to switch platforms if you have a significant investment in apps.

Coincidentally, that's why Steve Jobs was so anti-DRM. Apple benefited hugely from convincing the recording industry to allow DRM-free music. No proprietary lock-in with bizarre formats (Sony ATRAC, etc.) The competition's customers weren't forced to stay, and most ended up with iPods.

Oh, and that kind of ignorance is why Android is popular. "If I can't get a real iPhone, just give me the droid that looks the most like an iPhone."
 
I don't understand people who think that App Store is generic.

What do you think if you walked into a CVS Store and saw a sign "Winter is here! Get your kleenex and bounty stocked up!"? Then you walk to the isle to find CVS branded paper towels and tissue papers looking like those brands but not them at all.

I don't think that's fair, and CVS does this all the time. There's an expensive bottle of shampoo on the shelve and right next to it is CVS' one looking exactly the same, same colors, shapes and design, just a slightly different name.


This is just a free ride for Amazon, Google and Microsoft and they know it.

Just going to point out in for Kleenex and Bounty the companies made a point of providing a generic term for their product and using that generic term when describing others.

Apple on the other hand failed to do both those. They used the term app store generically multiple times. You have keynots from their CEO Steve Jobs using "app store" to describe Google's Market, Blackberry's Appword and Microsoft's Marketplace.
That kind of kills a good chunk of Apple's arguments of the term is not generic. It hard to argue that when ones own CEO used it that way in public keynotts. This does not include it being used by the press that way time and time again.

Even if Apple somehow wins the trademark they still have to win again in court that the term is not generic. Getting the trademark is going to be the easier for the two battles for Apple. Amazon only has to win one of them. Apple has to win them both and both are going to be a huge up hill battle for Apple.
 
And I think this is very different. If they called it "Groc Store" that would be similar. If no one was using "Groc Store" then that would be more similar.

People talk about App Store being generic. It isn't. The name didn't exist before. Isn't "Apple" generic by the same logic.

"App" has existed for decades, as we've demonstrated over and over again here. Adding "Store" to the end of the thing you buy there has been done for centuries, I imagine, allowing for language change. Claiming to own "App Store" is as ridiculous as if they called their Apple Stores "Computer Stores" and claimed it was a trademarkable term.

----------

Before the first iPhone "App Store" was NOT a generic term. It was hardly used if at all. When the first iPhone came out and Apple pushed the term as their store and the "App" branding then it became a term everyone knew. Then of course it feels generic, but really no - its not generic at all. Its a common phrase NOW but pre-iPhone most people had never heard it used.

Again, "app" has been in use for decades. Apple may have made it more common, but that's not creation, and that doesn't provide ownership.
 
Before the first iPhone "App Store" was NOT a generic term. It was hardly used if at all. When the first iPhone came out and Apple pushed the term as their store and the "App" branding then it became a term everyone knew. Then of course it feels generic, but really no - its not generic at all. Its a common phrase NOW but pre-iPhone most people had never heard it used.
You are confusing generic with popular.

Generic does not mean everyone in the public uses it. It could be limited to a single industry. All Apple did was take a generic term and cause the general public to know about it but does not change the fact that it was generic before hand. I can think of several terms from different industries that are generic but I also know most of the public has never heard those terms and I would and have gotten strange looks from people when I started using them in a convocations with someone else.
 
Apple needs exactly one lawsuit for every infringement of its intellectual property rights...not one less nor one more!

There has been very little in the way of proven, actual infringement of Apple's IP rights. Lots of allegations, mind you.
 
Repatriation of Apple's Foreign Cash

The mention of Apple accepting payments in yuan makes me wonder how the decision to accept currencies plays into Apple's overseas cash. Several companies, including Apple, have been lobbying for a kind tax holiday in which they could move their foreign-held cash back to the U.S. without paying as high taxes on it.

While accepting yuan in this huge market could only stand to increase Apple's foreign currency reserves, this may also be one of the few places where that's not an issue; if Apple can turn those yuan around to pay their Chinese manufacturing partners, they may have a large deficit in the amount of yuan needed to pay those suppliers.

(This also makes me wonder if Apple could structure things so as to pay Chinese suppliers with excess cash from other countries without being taxed by China, thereby never having the cash touch the U.S. and become taxable.)

Just curious...
 
If you want groceries you go to the grocery store
If you want a pet you go to the pet store
If you want apps you go to the app store

The term app has been around a lot longer than Apple has, give it up.

Frivolous lawsuit indeed.
 
If you want groceries you go to the grocery store
If you want a pet you go to the pet store
If you want apps you go to the app store

The term app has been around a lot longer than Apple has, give it up.

Frivolous lawsuit indeed.

I thought Apple invented the grocery store and the pet store too. :D
 
For those interested, in 2002 Sony Ericsson released their P800 smart phone device - below shown sporting Doom3D.
doom2.jpg


In 2003, this device came was blissed with what was called an Application Shop. Said shop existed both online, and client-side. The client side shop was basically a catalogue, with screenshots, reviews, descriptions etc. Further, it was neatly categorized depending on the nature of the application. Payments were processed by the application itself, making app purchases safe and easy.

And I think this is very different. If they called it "Groc Store" that would be similar. If no one was using "Groc Store" then that would be more similar.

People talk about App Store being generic. It isn't. The name didn't exist before. Isn't "Apple" generic by the same logic.

If you create a name for a business that is unique you can protect it. Often those name can be simple. Apple have used a name that has stuck so damned well that others want to use it.

Apple are very good at this. I remember before Apple launched there tablet everyone called what they had a tablet or slate. Apple introduced the word Pad and then a whole bunch used the same name. They never sought protection of this name and it may have been used prior. It's just a good example of Apple naming products and services well.

p.s.

it had a grid of icons too. quite sure the handset icon was green as well.
On another note... Google music's cloud logo is a damned close likeness of the Apple cloud. In fact when i saw it the logo invoked an image of Apple in my head. Very clever Google. For now. Apple has to expect people will try and piggy back them. And they need to respond.

Apple is generic but non-descriptive; Apple are not dealing in Apples - thus, they are fine.
Apps are generic and descriptive; App Stores are dealing in Apps - thus, they are not fine.

As for the Cloud, as i recall it Apple has been shown to have "copied" its logo in first place. Second, if one uses a generic, descriptive icon to represent "the cloud", one makes sense in calling foul when others do the same. Same argument as with App Stores really.

Its a cloud representing the cloud - deal with it.

p.s.

Apple did not come up with the word Pad. Not sure exactly who did, but i know for a fact that Mark Weiser (PARC) used it in his classification of various-sized computers, back in the 80's. In 1991, he wrote:

The next step up in size [after Tabs] is the pad, something of a cross between a sheet of paper and current laptop and palmtop computers . . .​

So yeah, they wouldnt have a case there either, if Samsung started selling the GalaxyPad (rather than GalaxyTab).
 
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Apple did not come up with the word Pad. Not sure exactly who did, but i know for a fact that Mark Weiser (PARC) used it in his classification of various-sized computers, back in the 80's. In 1991, he wrote:

The next step up in size [after Tabs] is the pad, something of a cross between a sheet of paper and current laptop and palmtop computers . . .​

So yeah, they wouldnt have a case there either, if Samsung started selling the GalaxyPad (rather than GalaxyTab).

Not to mention, the Star Trek PADD.
 
About Apple "inventing" the world app, my mom's old Symbian phone abbreviates "applications" as apps.
 
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