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Apple Legal Filing Cites Fear of 'Inferior' Amazon Appstore Tarnishing its Reputation
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I agree with you.
Multiple people I know (both iPhone and Android ones) all use App store to describe the App store. There is no confusion. If they are talking about Apple's App Store. They say APPLE App Store. If is is Amazon's App Store they use AMAZON App Store. There is no confusion.
This is more Apple trying to confuse the custermer to preventing companies from calling the name of the store exactly what it is an App store.
Multiple people I know (both iPhone and Android ones) all use App Store to describe all "app stores."
See what I just did? I know people as well. I can say *anything* I want without having to substantiate any of it when I use the disclaimer "multiple people I know." It's about as useful as a pair of thermal underwear in Death Valley at high noon. Without an actual substantial sample or survey, we can't know for sure. But given the fact that a really smart company that makes a helluva lot of money has decided to pursue this, I'm fairly confident we can get an idea of just how important something like this is.
What we *do* have to go on is Apple's decision to pursue this. We know that they clearly understand consumers (better than most) and they clearly see a material advantage in pursuing ownership of this term, and quite frankly, their pursuit of trademarks in the past (or rather, their explicit reliance on them) has played a significant role in the recognition of their brand. At least, we can assume that whatever they did in the past has contributed to their success.
In a nutshell, Apple wouldn't be pursuing this if there was no material value in doing so. It's not being done for fun and games or to "confuse the customer", whatever that's supposed to mean. Here's a company that understands brand power and the consumer mind to the fullest. Chances are, there's something to their decision to go ahead with this. Better to go on this than what your particular circle of buddies think.
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Dare I say it, and this coming from a guy that LIKES the Amazon App store a lot, I think Amazon should just call the darn thing "Amazon Apps" and leave it at that. It's shorter, and well.. www.amazon.com/apps is the actual app store address for it anyway.
True story.
I think (but I can't prove) that Apple was the first to coin the term "app store", but I don't think it should be trademarked. I don't think they should be suing others for using the same set of words to describe a place where people buy mobile phone applications, because in the end they're just making things worse for everyone.
However, seeing as some people on this board believe Apple can do no wrong and anything but the iOS ecosystem is a "fragmented" "problematic" "inferior" experience, I can't say anything to make you happy lol.
True story.
I think (but I can't prove) that Apple was the first to coin the term "app store", but I don't think it should be trademarked. I don't think they should be suing others for using the same set of words to describe a place where people buy mobile phone applications, because in the end they're just making things worse for everyone.
However, seeing as some people on this board believe Apple can do no wrong and anything but the iOS ecosystem is a "fragmented" "problematic" "inferior" experience, I can't say anything to make you happy lol.
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I'm guessing Apple doesn't need to substantiate the massive horror stories of consumer confusion over an android app store or Amazon app store. They can just say it too?
Jobs himself recognized Google's app market as an "app store."
Wouldn't it be cheaper just to get people used to the branded name "iApps", instead of all this legal nonsense and over what is a generic term to begin with?
Just wait for legal jobs going offshore, too... then the fun will really begin.
Just wait for legal jobs going offshore, too... then the fun will really begin.
That has been brought up multiple times and every time it gets passed over and not responded too.
The kicker is in court that direct question will come up and it will be ask how can Apple say the term app store is not generic when its own CEO uses it that way in public keynotes.
Apple hath "spoken," and so thereforeith, it is to be. Doth sayeth Steve Jobs. So Jobs decried to his followers, "we are the app store. The falsifiers who claim to provide a market for apps shall be smote by the agents and enforcers and reviewers of Hammurabi's code."
For Apple's own followers failed to see Jobs' perversion from Emmanuel Goldstein to Big Brother. Choosing which apps live and die in his market, a strict code of law for developers to follow... for Sidious basked in his new apprentice's transformation.
it's not the first to 'coin' the term or even file a trademark for certain uses. If you think of Cambridge when you hear Appstore then you have a point. Otherwise it doesn't apply to what Apple created and associated with the term. There is n't a term in the english language that hasn't been uttered and used, and even trademarked for certain purposes.
"Wait, Apple is first to say App Store?" No, and neither was Cambridge in your example, and yet they received a trademark. Why is it , they aren't the ones fighting Apple's use of it?
Because it was Amazon who leveraged the term for an identical purpose.
Whether Apple wins this or not - in my view, Amazon is the one who clearly characterizes themselves as yet another copy-cat of marketing to benefit from others work.
I still shop Amazon and like their service; but clearly they are best as a purveyor of other people's wares...
I believe Apple should be granted the trademark; 'Windows' and other examples are even more generically used - even in the use context. We were all using windows as a descriptor of segmented presentations on computers long before Microsoft 'coined' the term for their product. And we used it primarily for segmented presentation of APPS!!
ken
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Is that cos it only ever has 8 customers?
KingCrimson said:
Is that cos it only ever has 8 customers?
this argument over use of the terms "app store" is getting stupid. Apple, I realize you did it first, but that doesn't always automatically make it yours. You can't just go around trademarking generic terms. Saying you bought an app in the app store is the same thing as saying you bought cereal at the grocery store. "App Store" is not specific to a company anymore than "Grocery Store" is.
I'll sum it up like this...... what if they had let Paris Hilton trademark "That's hot"?! THAT'S NOT THE WORLD I WANT FOR MY CHILDREN.
I'll sum it up like this...... what if they had let Paris Hilton trademark "That's hot"?! THAT'S NOT THE WORLD I WANT FOR MY CHILDREN.
I agree, it's my one problem with Apple they are far too successful to act this way.
So you're now assuming Amazon and Microsoft chose to fight because they were sure they will lose or Apple wouldn't care? That's preposterous. Apple is fighting because they think the legal fees of more or less $50 million are less than the brand's worth times the chances of winning. Amazon and Microsoft came to the opposite conclusion with independent advisors.
I really doubt that if you ask an equal survey of iOS and Android users, what does App Store mean, they'll say Apple App Store. I have no proof, but neither do you for your previous claim. All I have is that they'll pull out their phone and point to the "Store" they use every day. Apple doesn't own a trademark for App, it's tough to then get one for a store that sells apps and calls itself the "app store." Not impossible, but very difficult.
What are you on about ? Did you read the filing I pointed out ? SAGE networks applied in 1998 for the App Store trademark for an online store that rented apps...
Cambridge what ? You're not even making any sense here in your rant.
I believe Apple should be granted the trademark; 'Windows' and other examples are even more generically used - even in the use context. We were all using windows as a descriptor of segmented presentations on computers long before Microsoft 'coined' the term for their product. And we used it primarily for segmented presentation of APPS!!
Windows in computer terms are not operating systems. They are graphical squares on screen that can contain information or present controls to a user in a graphical way for interaction. A system to display these squares is called a Windowing System (like X11, Quartz or... well the early versions of Windows).
An Operating system is a mostly a compromised of a process scheduler and a hardware interface, it has nothing to do with presentation layers for users and is even more detached from the "Window" concept.
Windows certainly isn't a descriptive trademark like App Store is and your example has been debunked again and again in these threads. So your whole post has basically been non-sensical.
SAGE networks did it first
I posted earlier in the thread showing their 1998 filing for the trademark AppStore.
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Very well put.
Also people need to go back a couple of years when the term 'app store' really did mean the apple app store. This has changed as people like amazon have done some damage and Apple do have a point with the shoddy security of some of the android apps that come from the store. Apple clearly have a case here...
Just because Amazon and Microsoft have tried to use this as a generic term does not make it so. In the UK one night think of the company Kleenex or sellotape Many people use this incorrectly
BJ.SoundWave360 said:
Very well put.
Also people need to go back a couple of years when the term 'app store' really did mean the apple app store. This has changed as people like amazon have done some damage and Apple do have a point with the shoddy security of some of the android apps that come from the store. Apple clearly have a case here...
Just because Amazon and Microsoft have tried to use this as a generic term does not make it so. In the UK one night think of the company Kleenex or sellotape Many people use this incorrectly
B
bikemonkey
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So many people on here jumping to bite at Apple. However, unless I'm mistaken, not one of you has taken the time to prove/explain why the Amazon App Store offers an equal or higher quality service.
Considering that one can only purchase software from Amazon if you live in the US - it is an inferior service when compared to the AppStore which is available in multiple countries.