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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."

9 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. Dear God... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For the love of sanity, please let Amazon win this one. I don't know if I want to live in a country where justice is so blind that it allows trademarking the name of the category a thing belongs to as the proper name of that thing.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    1. Re:Dear God... by recoiledsnake · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You mean like things like "Windows" right?

      Please, stop making absurd comparisons. "Windows" doesn't really describe the product itself. If MS trademarked "Operating System" and then sued Red Hat for calling their OS "Red Hat Operating System", then it would a similar comparison. i.e Windows is not a generic term for the product itself, unlike "app store".

      --
      This space for rent.
    2. Re:Dear God... by spun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, "Windows," as applied to computing, is not generic at all. "App" can only be applied to computing, and in that context, it is quite generic. A better example would be if Microsoft had named Windows, "Operating System."

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    3. Re:Dear God... by jmac_the_man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can still use the UI elements called Windows. You can still call them Windows. You can't call your operating system Windows. That's wildly different.

    4. Re:Dear God... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Presumably the action will be on the question of whether "App" is a protectable term.

      Don't be silly. I'm sure Apple is objecting to the use of the word "Store". :-)

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. 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

    --
    I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
  3. Re:Container Store? by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am against a sloppy application of the law.

    The fact that a certain sort of nonsense was tolerated before really doesn't matter.

    This isn't about being "against trademarks". Thats just stupid bad rhetoric.

    This is about being against trademarks that fail the basic rules for being an enforceable trademark.

    Being against this sort of nonsense is like advocating that the speed limit be enforced.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. Did Steve Jobs make Amazon's case for them? by Dialecticus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:In this case Apple's position is sane by asynchronous13 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You are barking up the wrong tree. You are correct that Apple did not invent the term "App", but that has no bearing on the validity of the trademark.

    "Open Happiness" is trademarked by Coca-Cola. Certainly no one claims that either word was invented by the company. PespiCo would be legally liable for using that phrase in an ad-campaign, however, a company in a different market (Dell for example) could probably use "Open Happiness" for computer sales without issue.

    Are you familiar with "The Container Store". It's a store where you buy, wait for it, containers!! And yes, "The Container Store" is trademarked. No other company selling containers can use that name. Similarly, Apple was granted a trademark for "App Store". Just because App Stores have more competition than Container Stores at the moment does not make the trademark any less valid.