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Amazon Responds To "App Store" Lawsuit From Apple

Posted by samzenpus on from the make-up-your-own-name dept.

tekgoblin writes "Apple had filed a lawsuit in March against Amazon's use of 'App Store' in their newly launched Amazon AppStore. Apple had informed Amazon that using the term 'App Store' was unlawful because they owned the rights to the term itself. In their response Amazon indicates that the term 'App Store' is too generic for Apple to lay claim to the name itself."

5 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. Re:uhhh by click2005 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Amazon quotes Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in the filing referring to the iTunes App Store as "the easiest to use, largest app store in the world".

    http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/mac-inspector-blog/2046035/amazon-files-response-apples-app-store-suit

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  2. Re:In this case Apple's position is sane by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 3, Informative

    People have been using the term "app" as an abbreviation for "application" for years and years. The term in no way originates with Apple.

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  3. Re:Dear God... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are mistaken.

  4. Re:Did Steve Jobs make Amazon's case for them? by Yakasha · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to a related article at The Register, as recently as October of 2010, Steve Jobs himself publicly called Apple's app store "the easiest-to-use, largest app store in the world, preloaded on every iPhone." So it would appear that even Cupertino is using the phrase app store generically in reference to its competitors. I'd call this tidbit a crushing blow to Apple's case. Thanks, Steve! We all app-reciate it.

    "Genericizing" a trademark after the fact doesn't invalidate it, unless the owner fails to enforce it. Since the trademark was applied for in 2008, what Steve said in 2010 is irrelevant, since Apple can do what it wants with its own trademark and is indeed trying to enforce it.

  5. Re:Appz? by exomondo · · Score: 3, Informative

    In case you didn't notice, Appz is rather unlike App. Also that domain is based around the concept of "Warez", more than a shortened form of Application.

    In any case the idea and name AppStore was around before Apple's App Store and was also a place to buy Applications from.