“Microsoft and several major handset makers, including HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, are now opposing Apple’s trademark of the term ‘App Store’ in the European Union for being generic,” Josh Ong reports for AppleInsider.
MacDailyNews Take: You know, because “windows” isn’t generic.
Ong reports, “Microsoft has lodged a formal application for declaration of invalidity of the ‘App Store’ and ‘Appstore’ trademarks with the EU’s Community Trade Mark office, the Digital Daily blog reports. The Redmond, Wash., search giant is joined by HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson in opposing the trademark in the EU. ‘Microsoft and other leading technology companies are seeking to invalidate Apple’s trademark registration for APP STORE and APPSTORE because we believe that they should not have been granted because they both lack distinctiveness,’ a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. ‘The undisputed facts establish that ‘app store’ means exactly what it says, a store offering apps, and is generic for the services that the registrations cover.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Doesn’t Microsoft use “program,” not “application” or “app,” in their rinky-dink Mac OS knockoff, anyway?
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft can’t help themselves, they’re just assholes acting like assholes. Next they’ll all dress up in dollar-store Darth Vader costumes and stage a public funeral parade for iPad, because they’re a bunch of undisciplined, uncouth, purposeless assholes led by The King of All Clueless Assholes. Well, not really led, but that’s where they get their “ideas.” Besides cobbling together upside-down and backwards copies of Apple products, being a bunch of giant assholes is Microsoft’s truest trademark. Assholery pervades Microsoft’s DNA; instilled by their founders, a couple of very royal assholes themselves.
Otherwise, it’s a fine company (if you like rampant, stifling corporate bureaucracy and bullshit politics; knockoff products that waste their unfortunate users’ time, money, and patience; and stock charts that look like parking lots).
Related articles:
In court battle, Amazon disputes Apple has exclusive rights to ‘App Store’ – April 26, 2011
Microsoft’s ‘Windows App Store’ images leak, look suspiciously like Apple’s Mac App Store – April 11, 2011
Apple expands their ‘App Store’ trademark in Europe – April 4, 2011
Apple targets Android porn store in ‘App Store’ trademark defense – March 23, 2011
Apple sues Amazon.com over ‘App Store’ trademark infringement – March 21, 2011
Microsoft seeks to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark brief because font is too small – March 9, 2011
Apple accuses Microsoft of hypocrisy in App Store trademark dispute – March 1, 2011
Microsoft files objection to Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark – January 12, 2011
‘Microsoft and other leading technology companies are seeking to invalidate Apple’s trademark registration for APP STORE and APPSTORE because we believe that they should not have been granted because they both lack distinctiveness,’
That’s funny, because when I hear the words “App Store,” I somehow IMMEDIATELY and SOLELY think that they’re being used in reference to the electronic application sales outlets operated by Apple.
Microsoft should just trademark the name MS Suck Store Ultimate Edition for Proles, Home Users, Servers & Monkeys & get over their obsession with the App Store.
That is because “app” was not really in wide use before Apple.
Sure wasn’t. And, as has been pointed out, ‘Programs’ is the folder µ$oft uses in its benighted OS. The iPhone/iPod landscape brought in ‘App’ to the public consciousness.
There’s an App for that, and a Store for those….
Applications on a mac = Apps on the iphone…..
Jesh! Case closed.
Mac App Store
Just tell us how you REALLY feel, MDN! Stop holding back, jeez… (Great take!)
@HuskerMac — EXACTLY, Micro$oft (and pretty much all other PC software providers for that matter) has always referred to their software as PROGRAMS not APPLICATIONS (hence, Program Manager, hello).
Nice take. Don Rickles on a roll.
AppStore. Sounds like a trade mark. if others want to do something simular, call it Application Store.
MicroSoft. Sounds like a trade mark too, but Micro is just small, and Soft is short for software. So I don’t think the name should be protected either, after all, it just means micro size software programs.
Same logic.
What size is the smallest program from Microsoft?
I think 13 gigs
lol…actually, that just covers the DLLs for Microsoft Office.
Boohoo. Fcuk the losers. What every retailer ought to be able to incorporate WalMart into their name since they have made the name what we all thing of as a value leader. Personally I rarely shop there. Think of them as the microsucks of retail, but for many destroying the world comes second to saving a nickel.
TOTALLY agree with you Marty! Walmart is one of the many things wrong with this country.
Not only is “Windows” an incredibly generic name, but also Word, Excel, Outlook. ANy others I’ve missed?
Fsking hypocrites! >:-(
They just have to copy Apple. From the look of their user interface, to their retail stores, and now down to the titles they use on their devices. It’s really pathetic.
all right I’m sorry but if u throw those out you also have to remember pages and numbers
Which is exactly why the invalidation is bogus. Claiming AppStore is too generic when Windows, Pages, Word, etc. are trademarkable clearly means AppStore is trademarkable. Come to think of it, if the EU agrees and invalidates, perhaps Apple should market Pages in the EU as Word!
How about calling your company something as original as “Microcomptuer Software Corporation”
*facepalm
Access, Project, Explorer…
I can see it from both sides, as far as MS and others claiming it is generic, but then again I never really heard the term “AppStore” until Apple came out with theirs.
I’ve heard “Applications” for years being used in various parts of high tech to describe software, but not AppStore.
I guess it could go either way and I really would not care.
You say you can see it from both sides, you prove Apple’s case, then you say it could go either way and finally you say you don’t care.
WTF! Why did you even comment?
You’ve heard application used to refer to programs because Apple uses it for that, no one else does. No one called their programs apps either or the store that sells them app store. Apple made the term ubiquitous because their product is so poular, all the more reason they deserve a trade mark. Be honest, 5 years ago if some one had said app store to you, would it have meant anything to you?
Msft and the Koreans know everyone has his price. Do you really think these regulators will turn down the green?
The WS crooks will get away with anything. Apple has zero killer instincts. They are no match for people without souls. Ask schumer and franken.
Not just ‘windows’, how more generic can you get than word, excel, access, powerpoint, azure, outlook, etc. These are all dictionary words that need a prefix.
@ MAChiavelli
“all right I’m sorry but if u throw those out you also have to remember pages and numbers”
Fair enough, but Apple aren’t the ones opposing the trademark.
EXACTLY.. Pages and Numbers are totally dull, but, fittingly, its all along the same line as all the other Productivity Suites. Apple is NOT the one complaining here, MS is. The thinking goes, you can pretty much use any common name, as long as you insist its “Microsoft Windows” not just ‘Windows’.. or something like that :S
Really…is this that difficult to decide.
Microsofts program extensions = com and exe
Apple’s program extensions = app
Perhaps Microsoft should have been first to market with a mobile store and associated ecosystem and we’d all be talking about the EXE Store (ehksee store). But no, they weren’t, HTC wasn’t, Sony wasn’t, and Nokia wasn’t. So, tuff patooties now.
Microsoft should use “Exe Store”
No they can call it the
Ass Store
These companies are just butthurt that Apple successfully introduced and marketed a killer feature on smartphones (app stores) to the point where they have the mindshare of consumers. Instead of bitching about Apple patents and trademarks they could, I don’t know, develop their own ideas and features like a tech company is supposed to do.
MDN!!!! Go for it, let it all out.
Not much into profanity, but in earthy, human terms, I think you just about nailed it. No thesaurus necessary.
Now, in spiritual terms, words like demonic, Satanic and from the pit of Hell, come to mind.