No, you are wrong. Trademarking "Application Store" would be like trademarking "Grocery Store". To make your analogy correct, you must compare App Store to Groc Store. I think you can trademark Groc Store - it's an invented word. App is an invented word. It is NOT just the shortening of "application" like "Dr." is a shortening for doctor or drive. While the word "app" may be commonly used in technology circles, Apple is the first and only company to trademark its use as "App Store". Apple should be able to protect that special combination.
Isn't the term "droid" licensed from lucasarts?
I became common because of the millions of dollars Apple spent marketing the name of their store. Just like people tend to call mp3 players ipods another term that became common because Apple marketed the name to everyone and made it desirable.
If I were steve jobs, my initial complain would be that the first two letters would be vowels. iApp doesn't sound 100% clear.
Trademarking the term "App Store" is like trademarking the word "Windows" oh wait thats already been done... Microcrap got away with trademarking the generic Windows so Apple should get App Store its only fair
when I hear the term Windows I think of the glass box in my living room, bedrooms, etc that I open and close....
Haters gonna hate. Which a lot of you seem to be doing. No one copied windows name because Apple was more creative than that and came up with their own Mac. The same should again apply. Let Amazon use Application store but the shortened version of app store is slang, there for not generic.
Apple never copies anyone, everyone copies Apple.
How about the original applicant for the trademark of AppStore then ?
Notice the date. AppStore or App Store is not something Apple invented. It's a descriptive phrase that is used to describe the service provided by a place that sells applications, like Grocery Store, Hardware Store, Container Store (and their trademarked logo, not name).
Anyway, Steve Jobs basically lost this lawsuit on his own in less than 2 minutes during a Earning's call earlier this year :
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-steve-jobs-referred-to-app-stores-2011-4#ixzz1Q5bVy2ny
So much for that.
And Apple is a fruit. Trademarks can use generic words without any problems, it's the field they are applied to that matters. In this case, App Store's problem is that it is descriptive. It is an "App Store", a place that sells applications.
However, Apple computers is not a company that makes fruit based biological computers. Windows is not a glass pane that you put on a building or a graphical square on screen that contains other controls to create a user interface. If you want to have a descriptive mark, you usually trademark it as a logo, which while it has to be unique, doesn't stop others from using the descriptive nature of the phrase.
I am guessing you missed the Abandonment Date November 24, 2000 part.
If it was not generic back then, when apple applied for it then it should still not be generic right? This makes apples case stronger.
Nope, I didn't. If you followed the context of that post you're quoting, the poster I was responding to said Apple was the first to use App and Store together. I was proving him wrong with Sage's trademark application as proof.
The fact someone else applied it then abandonned it doesn't mean it's not descriptive nor does it mean anything in the case of Apple. You're looking too deep into it. All it means is either Sage never went through the full registration process or no one opposed it during the opposition phase nor was it ever challenged in court.
Notice though how it was abandonned 2 years after filing. Apple's current filing is on its 3rd year. That should tell you something right there, Sage never got the trademark officially registered.
Again, you're looking way too deep into this, it means nothing as far as the current discussion or case goes, beyond proving wrong all the posters who like to claim Apple was first with App Store.
Welcome to the thread a few weeks late and a dollar short though.
People are not claiming apple coined the term app store, they are saying Apple make it popular and a house hold name. And just because one company did and abandoned it, does not mean anyone even heard of that company ever using the term.
Apple is the one who made app store a big name.
People are not claiming apple coined the term app store
they are saying Apple make it popular and a house hold name.
And just because one company did and abandoned it, does not mean anyone even heard of that company ever using the term.
Apple is the one who made app store a big name.