Apple Sues Amazon Over 'App Store' Trademark

[samcraig]

It looks Amazon and many others are purposely trying to steal Apple's business. There are so many ways to create a new name for the store. Why do they have to use the same name Apple selected? This is shame.

Steal there business? How in heck can anything Amazon sells in way of Apps load on an Apple device. Conversely - how can anything apple sells (apps) load on a device that's not apple

That - again - is another reason this is silly. there's no confusion or competition on this matter

It's a pissing contest - that's all

 

[tzeshan]

Uhhh.....Open Office?

And of course Windows can't be used for an OS, are you even following what people are saying? MS can't stop window stores from using Windows in the title, but surely they can defend it when related to non windows products that are in the software category.

An app store is JUST an app store. Hence the "grocery store" example I used earlier. I will spell it out even more clearly here.

Person 1 - "I am going to the grocery store for food."

Person 2 - "Which one?"

It's as generic as it gets and it applies to apps.

Person 1 - "I bought this game from the app store."

Person 2 - "Whose?"

See? The only problem here is if someone is myopic enough to think "the app store" should apply ONLY to Apple. I can't imagine being that foolish though. It IS a generic term for a place to buy software.

Also Word. lol

 

[Laird Knox]

How generic the term is has nothing to do with this case. Apple was awarded a trademark on the term. Amazon is infringing on that trademark.

The Microsoft case is the one that holds water here. They are challenging the trademark on the grounds that it is too generic. We'll have to wait and see the outcome of that case.

I suspect this is a calculated move by Amazon to add some weight to Microsoft's case.

 

[yanksrock100]

U\
It's as generic as it gets and it applies to apps.

Person 1 - "I bought this game from the app store."

Person 2 - "Whose?"

See? The only problem here is if someone is myopic enough to think "the app store" should apply ONLY to Apple. I can't imagine being that foolish though. It IS a generic term for a place to buy software.

Well the App Store IS apple's. And really, if someone says, I bought it from the app store, they are talking about the App Store.
If they say, I bought it at the android market, then hey, thats where they got it.

 

[rococoloco]

There was indeed nothing like it before apple's. Now that everyone and their dog wants to run one, they need to come up with their own monickers.

Ubuntu has had a Software Center long before Apple brought out the iPhone and wanted to control what people installed, then the transition to the desktop.

Interestingly, Ubuntu has Launchpad, Lion now has a Launchpad, while they are both very different things, Ubuntu being a bug and version tracker tool, they are both a distinct moniker in a related field.

Canonical will probably not sue Apple.

 

[Laird Knox]

I heard a rumor that Ballmer is pushing Microsoft to trademark the Ape Store.

 

[Veri]

The term "application shop" was used for Symbian's shop for quite a while before Apple appeared with its iPhone, "shop" being a simple translation of the US English "store". And "app" has been a generic abbreviation for "application" at least since the late '80s on Acorn's RISC OS, newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.apps being proposed in early 1995.

You can argue that translations are irrelevant but this is not always so across the world. Regardless, it is ethically questionable to suggest that a generic phrase should become a trademark just because a word has been translated to another dialect of English.

 

[thelonelylimo]

Date "App" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1651

Bing or Google?

 

[iCrizzo]

HAHA.. wonder when Apple will start docking that 30% from the Amazon app?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

So how is 'Windows' not a generic term?

When was the last time you referred to your Mac as a Windows machine. When people say their machine runs Windows they mean Windows.

App Store vs Appstore.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

also, amazon is spelling it with no space between app and store as in appstore.

Point? I give you Victoria's Secret v. Victor's Secret (not the actual case name, but the parties people actually recognize). It was a trademark dilution case. Victor lost. (Well, he won then the law was changed so he would lose & he did.)

So you see, even a slight change in words or spacing or gender doesn't save you.

 

[thelonelylimo]

 

[Vulpinemac]

Since 2008, the term app store has indeed become more generic. Good luck fighting this Apple. It's the way it is now.

"App" is quickly becoming a generic term.

App Store vs Appstore.

Good....

No one ever said the word "app" until Apple's App Store...

Actually, the term 'App' for Application started in 2001 with Apple's release of OS X, where software used the " .app " extension. Yes, the term 'app' became generic over time, but even now Microsoft's software is called an "executable" while Apple's are called "Apps."

Since Apple was awarded the trademark for "App Store" and Amazon's "AppStore" can be and will be confused since they both serve a very similar purpose, Apple has every right to insist on a change by Amazon. A trademark lasts until abandonment, unlike copyrights which are slightly more limited.

 

[bassfingers]

blah blah windows generic blah blah dumbheadnonsense

So how is 'Windows' not a generic term?

people need to stop this, because this argument sucks. This argument could go anywhere.

for example

"So how is 'pages' not a generic term"

"So how is 'american apparel' not a generic term"

"So how is 'dunkin donuts' not a generic term"

It doesn't matter if the trademark is also a commonly used word (windows). However, if "windows" were the name of a brand of window, then that would be an issue. See the difference?

 

[a.gomez]

" Microsoft Windows" is an OS - they made a software and called it "Windows" for an ABSTRACT reason

AppStore, is just that - an Application Store, it is just abbreviated

I should TM AutoStore and AutoShop

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

Because it's "Microsoft Windows".

This wouldn't be much different from a placed called "The Grocery Store", and then trying to trademark it so that no other food place could refer to themselves as a grocery store. It's a bit silly.

Once again...

 

[bassfingers]

Uhhh.....Open Office?

An app store is JUST an app store. Hence the "grocery store" example I used earlier. I will spell it out even more clearly here.

Person 1 - "I am going to the grocery store for food."

Person 2 - "Which one?"

It's as generic as it gets and it applies to apps.

What if I open up my own store called "The Groce Store" and inspire millions to use the abbreviation "Groc" for "Grocery". Would you let me trademark "groce", or would you say that the abbreviation that I popularized is now "generic".

See the comparison I made

 

[Rivix]

Stand your ground Amazon. And Apple should drop it because nobody really cares and they just look like a bitch.

 

[tinman0]

Can someone clarify this for me:

Apple is in charge of APP STORE (two words).

Amazon created APPSTORE (one word).

Are they the same?

Yes.

Apple merely need to show that a competing service/product could cause confusion to the consumer, so merely removing a space is not good enough.

In fact, Apple would probably stand in a very good chance to defend the word "App" attached to anything else, eg App Marketplace.

Amazon are merely trying it on, and will back down sooner than later. Probably when their IP lawyers get instruction.

 

[haydn!]

I think people are confusing the difference between a generic term, and brand name. Apple haven't trademarked the use of App Store as a generic term, it's a important part of the Apple brand.

Windows is generic word, but it's also a popular brand name. If another company set up show selling software under the name Windows. Microsoft would sue because that new company is using the Windows brand to it's own advantage. Microsoft won't sue a double glazing company because they sell double glazing windows because there is no cause for confusion.

Whilst app store may have become a generic term that people do now use commonly. It doesn't change the fact that the App Store is an existing brand, and a trademarked one at that. Apple won't sue someone for using the term generally, but if they're using it to sell their own software market, they have every right too because there is opportunity for consumer confusion and again, Amazon could be seen to be abusing the success of the Apple App Store to springboard their own.

There are countless brand names built around generic words, names. Coke is trademarked by Coca Cola, and can only be used by them as a brand but how many people will generically refer to a lesser branded cola product as Coke? you may refer to it as coke, but it's label and branding won't mention the word!

 

[(L)]

Amazon...

• Application Store
• BunchoApps
• Copycats
• Downloads
• Marketplace
• MyPlace
• Software Downloads
• Software Store
• Software Warehouse
• SoftWhere

SoftWhere. Hahaha. Where do I go? The SOFTWHERE! Good luck with that, Amazon.

Trademark squatting is one of those areas legal professionals need to revisit. I think Apple has a very good claim to App Store not being generic, though. First of all, even if "app" is short for "application," there are also applets, Apple software, and other things which start with "app." This could be used to defend the term, not to mention the fact that nobody else wanted the term until after Apple used it and single-handedly made it famous.

Far be it from legal professionals to be able to easily find a way of changing the fine line between a generic term and a trademark. Remember when people called MP3 players "iPods"? It works in too many different real-world ways for the laws to ever get straight without killing off all the gray area terms.

The App Store is not even necessarily in the gray area, as others have noted. It can be objectively established that Apple's App Store is both large (significant) and relatively famous; the burden is on Amazon to effectively challenge Apple, and since they would clearly lose in terms of the competition for recognition and level of investment and effort already put into it, I doubt that they'd win on the grounds that "app" is becoming increasingly popular. Especially since Apple can claim to have helped make that happen way more than Amazon can.

In summary, Amazon has nothing on Apple when it comes to apps.

 

[chairguru22]

In other news, Apple sues everyone for eating the fruit or drinking the juice.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

" Microsoft Windows" is an OS - they made a software and called it "Windows" for an ABSTRACT reason

AppStore, is just that - an Application Store, it is just abbreviated

I should TM AutoStore and AutoShop

I think you're too late on AutoShop. http://www.theautoshop.com/

AutoStore is trademarked, but with respect to document storage software. Auto Store is used by several sites, but I don't see a trademark note on any of them. The problem with applying for a trademark on AutoStore is that several businesses already use it in trade.

 

[Yamcha]

You cannot keep these type of words for your own, its words like these you have to share..

It's like the word music (mp3's) or video (vids), they are generic terms, you cannot take the word Application or the word Store, just can't everyone has to use it..

 

[thelonelylimo]

In other news, Apple sues everyone for eating the fruit or drinking the juice.

I see what you did there.

 

[The Phazer]

"App" and "application" are not the same. No one says "progs" instead of program. Wouldn't that be a natural abbreviation too?

Errr... yes they do. All the time.

Indeed, I know a UK based software company that had a trademark for "Prog" refused on the basis that it was too generic...

Phazer