Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft and Apple suing each other

sam_and_ralph_clock.png


Just business as usual.
 
So apparently, Apple won... Microsoft, forgot their own brands... well. This is a trivial matter at any point.

If Microsoft would have won, it would mean squat to average Joe consumer as everyone now a days understands the App Store as iPhone OS dependency, not Windows Mobile.

WiMP users depends on microsoft market place
 
They strong armed competition in the 90's Duh.


is that the only explanation you have? no other facts?

would you like to drive only 1 type of car and get it services at 1 place for the rest of your life?

some people like choice, im pretty sure you understand this.
 
Wow most of you are way off point. Being generic doesn't mean it's a common word. That's stupid. You don't have to create words like "Pixar" to have a trademark. What the hell is "Apple" then? The genericness claim is saying that Apple is trying to trademark the term "App Store" for describing…an app store. Windows isn't a name for a window company; it's software.
 
Wow - could you be more wrong? No one said Apps until Apple and the iPhone. You must be young. Very young. Many people for years have used the term Apps. The first PALM had "apps". And the term predates the palm.

But I don't expect someone who is so vehemently against Microsoft to post anything else based on the rest of your post.

I don't think Microsoft (or Nokia, or anyone else) would object if Apple wanted to trademark "Apple App Store" or iTunes App Store
I'm not young....

Palm is dead.

Palm may have used "Apps", but they were too lame to coin the term "Apps". Where Apple has... so it's theres. No one (meaning general public) used the term Apps until Apple's iPhone and that's a fact.

Too bad so sad Palm couldn't pull it off.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You are so wrong. "Windows" is just as generic as "App Store".

On one hand you have every OS in the world using a GUI system that has "Windows" in it. On the other you have "Apps Store", but not every OS in the world calls their software "Apps". Other names would be Program or Software.

What's more generic.... "Windows" or "App Store"?

That's right "Windows".:D

App Store is generic. App Store is the title we use to describe the outlets we browse and purchase applications. It's not specific to Apple's application store.

Windows is an operating system, not a window. I'm not fond of Microsoft, but credit is rightfully placed where its due.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow most of you are way off point. Being generic doesn't mean it's a common word. That's stupid. You don't have to create words like "Pixar" to have a trademark. What the hell is "Apple" then? The genericness claim is saying that Apple is trying to trademark the term "App Store" for describing…an app store. Windows isn't a name for a window company; it's software.

Wrong. Before Microsoft stole the term, people call those square gui elements you see on a computer screen "windows."

Seems Microsoft is trying to steal someone else's term again.
 
Wow most of you are way off point. Being generic doesn't mean it's a common word. That's stupid. You don't have to create words like "Pixar" to have a trademark. What the hell is "Apple" then? The genericness claim is saying that Apple is trying to trademark the term "App Store" for describing…an app store. Windows isn't a name for a window company; it's software.

*slow clap*

Thank you.

It's baffling to see how many people cannot comprehend this simple concept.
 
just wait for the counter patent objection...

I think Windows will lose this..

Apple has done enough to develop and present the App Store to hold mark rights to it...

That is when Apple files an objection to Microsoft's plans to trademark the "InTune" moniker. InTune is a lot like iTunes.
 
Wrong. Before Microsoft stole the term, people call those square gui elements you see on a computer screen "windows."

Seems Microsoft is trying to steal someone else's term again.

So? Apple can still call them windows and has a Window menu. It's not the element they're trademarking, it's the name for a piece of software. It's like if Apple called their next OS "Buttons".
 
Last edited by a moderator:
windows is an operating system
Microsoft is the company that filed the complaint (as well as some others i believe)

Funny, Microsoft hasn't sued Pella or Anderson of the use of windows. One could say those two companies have been blatantly disregarding the Microsoft's trademark. I went to Lowes and saw Windows, not glass lookey outies. Didn't see any fine print disclosure statments that reference Microsoft as the hold of the mark for windows.
 
is that the only explanation you have? no other facts?

would you like to drive only 1 type of car and get it services at 1 place for the rest of your life?

some people like choice, im pretty sure you understand this.

You're weird.

You used a car analogy to try to defend the use of Windows, but it's Windows that has been trying to keep you from having choice and only drive one car.. their car. I'm pretty sure you DON'T understand that or you would not have posted this ridiculous response.

MS is mad that everyone is choosing another OS. They have lost their strong hold and it's grip is slipping fast.

I would love to see more operating systems out there, but there is not. Out of the three big players OS X is the best choice.
 
App Store is generic. App Store is the title we use to describe the outlets we browse and purchase applications. It's not specific to Apple's application store.

Maybe you do NOW. But you didn't until Apple coined the term/phrase/title for their App Store. if you think otherwise you really are just lying to yourself.

Windows is an operating system, not a window. I'm not fond of Microsoft, but credit is rightfully placed where its due.

Windows the name comes from the GUI elements so called by those that Microsoft ripped the whole concept of a WIMP (WINDOWS Icon Mouse Pointer) from (Xerox/Apple etc.). Windows in the context of a graphical user interface is as generic a term as you can get, bearing in mind Xerox created the WIMP system in the 1970's.

After you've taken off the blinkers, you may also want to take off those Rose tinted glasses.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not young....

Palm is dead.

Palm may have used "Apps", but they were too lame to coin the term "Apps". Where Apple has... so it's theres. No one (meaning general public) used the term Apps until Apple's iPhone and that's a fact.

Too bad so sad Palm couldn't pull it off.

WOW. Ok - just rewrite history to make yourself feel better.

Palm being bought and the company's name being put to rest in 2011 has nothing to do with the discussion. Way to straw man the discussion.

And millions of people used the phrase "apps" long before Apple had the app store. Fact. For DECADES before the iPhone. Also fact.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
To prevent other people writing in ignorance about what Microsoft does "own" and does not - please look at this link.... which incidentally appears in the post above mine and on other threads where people continue to pull facts out of their hindquarters

http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/en/us/IntellectualProperty/Trademarks/EN-US.aspx

Interesting. I see they have "Xbox Ring of Light" do they have "Xbox Ring of Death" too? :D

Windows Media - rather a generic term too, considering what it's for. But hey, let's not get too hung up on them.
 
IMHO i think apple deserves to lose that lawsuit. trademarking something which is simply a generic descriptionis quite an annoyance and very much a thing of 90ties
 
WOW. Ok - just rewrite history to make yourself feel better.

Palm being bought and the company's name being put to rest in 2011 has nothing to do with the discussion. Way to straw man the discussion.

And millions of people used the phrase "apps" long before Apple had the app store. Fact. For DECADES before the iPhone. Also fact.

Okay, but Apple isn't trying to trademark the ubiquitous term "Apps", they're trying to trademark the more specific term "App Store", which they themselves coined.

The term "apps" in this argument is wholly irrelevant.
 
You are so wrong. "Windows" is just as generic as "App Store".

On one hand you have every OS in the world using a GUI system that has "Windows" in it. On the other you have "Apps Store", but not every OS in the world calls their software "Apps". Other names would be Program or Software.

What's more generic.... "Windows" or "App Store"?

That's right "Windows".:D

First of all, let's dismiss this false notion that Apple somehow "invented" the word "app." Here's a 2005 post in MacWorld referring to individual programs in the iWork suite as "apps." Wiktionary has a whole list of uses of the word "app" to mean "application" prior to Apple's introduction of the App Store. The word "app" meant "application" way before the iPhone was even cooking inside Apple HQ.

So, in light of this, it doesn't matter how other platforms refer to their software - they're still apps, because that's what the word means.

Now let's tackle the issue of Microsoft's alleged "hypocrisy" here. Sure, pretty much every desktop operating system has windows - but windows are one small element of a pretty huge picture. You wouldn't describe Windows (or Mac OS X, or any Linux distribution, etc.) as a "window" or "windows," would you? Of course not. You'd refer to it as an operating system.

On the other hand, how would you describe the App Store? It's an "app store" - its name describes exactly what it is. An "app" is an application, and a "store" is a place where you sell things. It's as if someone named their car dealership "Car Dealership" and then tried to trademark the term - there's no creative license being applied, they are just using an generic description as an actual name.

As far as hypocrisy goes, if Microsoft were selling actual windows you could make the argument that "Windows" is a generic term in that context and shouldn't be allowed as a trademark. But they're not - there's a layer of abstraction there that isn't present in Apple's attempt to trademark the term "App Store."

So in light of all that, in the contexts in which the names are used, which is more generic: "Windows" or "App Store?" The answer is clearly and unequivocably "App Store."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Interesting. I see they have "Xbox Ring of Light" do they have "Xbox Ring of Death" too? :D

Windows Media - rather a generic term too, considering what it's for. But hey, let's not get too hung up on them.

Windows Media is specific. Media is generic.

I think the dispute is needed. I think that it will be interesting what the outcome is (which I imagine will be challenged for several years anyway - whatever it is).

Those that suggest the dispute has no merit or just simply take Apple's side because it's Apple (or because you're anti-Microsoft) are just being silly.
 
IMHO i think apple deserves to lose that lawsuit. trademarking something which is simply a generic descriptionis quite an annoyance and very much a thing of 90ties

Why do they. Being heavily into technology and the technology industry throughout the 90s and to this day, I cannot recall the term "App Store" ever being used prior to Apple's announcement of the App Store.

Seems to me like they're entitled to it, if you throw emotions aside and look it rationally.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.