“Apple Inc may face hurdles in stopping online retailer Amazon.com Inc from using Apple’s App Store name through a trademark lawsuit, a U.S. judge indicated at a hearing on Wednesday,” Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta report for Reuters.
“At the hearing in an Oakland federal court on Wednesday, District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said… Apple had a ‘stumbling block’ in proving that anyone would confuse Apple’s App Store for Amazon’s Appstore for Android, the individual said,” Levine and Gupta report. “Hamilton did not make a final ruling at the hearing, court records show.”
Levine and Gupta report, “Apple claims in the lawsuit that Amazon is unlawfully using the App Store name in connection with what Amazon calls the ‘Amazon Appstore Developer Portal,’ along with other instances like advertisements for a version of Angry Birds, the popular mobile game. Apple has also asserted a claim of unfair competition, and is seeking to enjoin Amazon from using the App Store mark.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple rejects Amazon’s claims ‘App Store’ is generic – May 20, 2011
Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson oppose Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark in EU – May 13, 2011
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
what a BIG blow to Apple…
Go Amazon Go!
Hopefully everyone can use this name now lol
Yes, go Amazon go; it’s not like they have copyrighted the name and method of One Click ® and then sued other web merchants and extracted royalty from them including Google and Apple. Oh wait…
I guess, now Apple too can simply use One Click, Apple’s Amazon bookstore, ’s AmazonStore, Amazon ShoppingCart etc. Not fair? Why, by all means, let’s litigate and discover a few new stumbling blocks. Idiotic judges.
Marco, I’m curious. It appears that you aren’t very fond of Apple. If this is the case then it begs the question- why do you hang out here? Is it to find opportunities to slam Apple? Because if this is so it just shows you to be juvenile at best…
How do you say “Eat sh*t!” in the Amazon language?
Let me help you out with that. It’s spelt as M-a-r-c-o. Otherwise known as dickface.
I think he was goingfor sarcasm, which doesn’t translate well in text
Nope, Marco’s been trollin’ here for a while. A lot of his posts get da boot, but he manages to sneak in a few from time to time still.
Yeah “App Store” is waaaaaay to generic a term to trademark and prevent other’s from using.
if you let apple get away with trademarking “app store” then what will be next? Even more generic terms like “office” or “windows” might be trademarked, which would be… ridiculous!
It’s a trademark. Both sell software, although for different platforms. What would happen if an unsophisticated user went to Amazon trying to buy Angry Birds for their iPhone? Would Amazon say tough nuggies, you bought it, it’s your responsibility to have a device to run it on? What is Amazons plan to avoid defrauding the public?
… access Amazon’s Android “App Store” from your iPhone? Not the same way you’d access THE App Store, I’d bet. And, if the word “Android” were up front on the site, might that not be enough of a clue for any but the dimmest bulbs?
You bought a “smart phone”, are YOU “smart” enough to use it?
Except you CAN buy the apps from the website.
Oh and get this…
Open up your amazon app on the iPhone, and enter angry birds. Scroll down…… You CAN buy it (free) directly from your iPhone.
Hey does that mean “Windows” would face a “stumbling block” defending the name of their OS?
On second thought, who’d want to adopt that name for their product?
The floodgates will open. Now Amazon can call their music download store, “Amazon iTunes Music Store”.
Ridiculous! No one would be using the name AppStore if it weren’t for Apple coining the term in the first place.
How is it that a company that basically reinvents the cell phone industry and now the way software is distributed to its users can’t swat these frivolous lawsuits aside when had it not have been for Apple in the first place these ideas and technologies would not even exist? Sorry for the long sentence.
It comes down to:
Apple = App Store
Amazon = Appstore
generic = app store
Everyone should be okay, as long as they don’t call it the App Store.
Problem is, app is not a generic term. App is a term 100% coined by Apple to refer to mobile phone programs.
The term “app” was used as narrow professional slang long time before Apple’s App Store.
However, it had nothing to do with widespread use in public, nor to any electronic or even physical stores for applications.
So Apple has the right for “App Store” fairly — widespread use and association with “store” is tottally Apple’s doing.
AppleApp Store problem solved
Considering the word “app” didn’t exist until Apple came up with it, methinks the judge has her head up her ass.
If App Store is not unique
why doesn’t Amazon use Amazon Android Market?
or the Android Store? Android Apps? etc. (some highly paid ad guy can think of better names than me)
obviously Apple has spent a ton of effort building App Store as a recognizable entity for mobile applications, that’s why Amazon wants to steal it.
Microsoft has trademark generic ‘Windows’, Verizon ‘Droid’ etc.
Yup,
and Apple should then include a service in Safari for shopping online called “Safari Amazon Store”
*Amazon from
The stumbling block is a stupid judge.
If you invent a thing and a term for it and trade mark it legally….
Isn’t Amazon a river is South America.
“App” may have been used in a casual manner years back but it was Apple that made it a modern day buzz word.
“There’s an app for that” was widely parroted and it was in relation to the APPLE iPhone that it became so.
IIRC, Verizon did a take off on the well known slogan when it slagged AT&T in a TV commercial with “There’s a map for that” (re Verizon’s wider service coverage).
So “app” has become a buzz word due to Apple and the i-devices…. and the “App Store” follows suit (since you can’t hear the separating space vs Amazon’s AppStore).
Yes indeed, idiot, out-of-touch judges.