Slashdot Mirror
If App Store's Trademark Is Generic, So Is Windows'
Toe, The writes "In response to Microsoft's attempt to dismiss Apple's 'App Store' trademark application, Apple references Microsoft's claim to the Windows trademark. 'Having itself faced a decades-long genericness challenge to its claimed WINDOWS mark, Microsoft should be well aware that the focus in evaluating genericness is on the mark as a whole and requires a fact-intensive assessment of the primary significance of the term to a substantial majority of the relevant public.'"
Similarly, Apple used the term windows before Microsoft created Windows. If your argument that App Store is a generic term is valid, then Windows is also generic. That is Apple's point.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
You get a generic trademark when a product or service has become so ubiquitous in the field that the mark's name comes to represent the field rather than a specific company's product. (For example, escalators, or zippers, or Pilates.) I don't think Apple's argument that Windows is generic really flies very well. When the word "Windows" or "Microsoft Windows" are said, it creates a very clear image of what is being discussed - specifically, Microsoft's own operating system. However, when you say the word "App Store", I think that conjures up images of just about any sort of app stores that we have nowadays - Palm's, Blackberry's, Windows Phone's Android's, etc. Even though none of the other companies precisely use the term "App Store" in their product's name, the mark itself immediately conjures up the entire field instead of Apple's specific App Store service.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
But Microsoft does sue companies that make products with names similar to Windows. They sued Lindows. If Microsoft can successfully sue over the Windows trademark, why can't Apple successfully sue over the App Store trademark?
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
You do realize that you completely missed the point right? In the context of Gui elements, windows was the term for the rectangle on the screen containing the application. However, in the context of an Operating System (not Gui Elements) there is no generic Windows, only the microsoft Operating System product which is named Windows. There is no generic term Windows when speaking about Operating Systems, if you are talking about them and say Windows, everyone knows what you are talking about.
If you say "App Store" do you think people will instantly think of Apple's App Store, or do you think that they will think App Stores in general? Can someone tell you're talking about Apple's App Store without any clues other than the words App Store?