Apple Sues Amazon over ‘Appstore’ Trademark

27 Mar, 2011

According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple has taken online-retailer Amazon.com to court over the use of the “app store” trademark that has been registered by Apple. The claim states that Amazon improperly uses the trademark in connection with her mobile-application developer program, as well as the downloading service offered by the company.

The Amazon Appstore was launced earlier this week, offering well over 3,800 apps for the Android operating system. Apple states it opposes the use of the “Appstore” as it believes “it will confuse and mislead customers.” On these grounds, it has requested Amazon to remove the title, but the claim states that Amazon has not yet “provided a substantive response.”

Before the current case will be settled in court, another case between Microsoft and Apple, also concerning the use of the App Store trademark, will be presented. According to Microsoft, the trademark registered by Apple is a generic term that has little to do with Apple, therefore making it unfair to grant Apple exclusive rights to the word.

3 comments

About the author

Robin Meijer

Missed out on most of the "Golden Age of Gaming" due to not being born until 1988. Been catching up on what I've missed out since I began writing for Elder Geek in 2009. For some reason, continuously mistaken for being Belgian, despite being Dutch.

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3 Comments

  1. Korne
    Korne
    March 27, 2011

    Interesting, but I think something being called an ap store is going to be hard to hold onto in court. It would be like if QVC opened a QVCereal aisle and someone else had a Cereal aisle that sold cereal other than QVC brand.

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    • Seluhir
      March 28, 2011

      ya… App stands for Application, not Apple…….

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  2. Mats Paasche
    Mats Paasche
    March 29, 2011

    Oh Apple, how you delight in making me hate you. You excel in user interface, ergonomic design, practical design, and marketing. But you just can’t leave that well enough alone can you? You just have to package it with hypocrisy, nonsensical company policy, outrageous DRM, attempted monopoly and plain childishness. Imagine what you could accomplish if you just left all that alone and focused all that time, money and energy on more noble pursuits.

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