Image via WikipediaApple has taken official action against Amazon in court, as the company continues its struggle in defending its trademark of the title "App Store." Apple is looking for the court to avert Amazon from using the name "appstore" for its new Android application storefront. Apple filed a legal complaint in the federal Court of Oakland, Calif. Bloomberg reports that Apple has demanded from the court to immediately deny the claims of Amazon that the term "App Store" is generic. This is a trademark infringement suit against Amazon for its newly launched Appstore for Android. According to the writings in Apple’s complaint, it says "Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words 'app store' together denotes a store for apps." Further the statement implies that the term “App Store” is not used very frequently by businesses to refer to any download services, hence it asserts that the term "app store" is not generic.
Initially the lawsuit of Apple Inc. was filed in March, just a day before Amazon released its own Appstore. Amazon gave a legal response in April, keeping the stance that the term "app store" is too generic, so not only Android, but anyone should be able to use it. The very recent response of Apple is an effort to refute this claim of Amazon.
Apple is facing the similar kind of situation by the hands of Microsoft, though it has not filed any lawsuit, only a complaint instead. In January, Microsoft did lodge an objection against Apple's "App Store" trademark registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Microsoft also gave the same reason as Amazon, asserting that the term "app store" is too generic to be actually registered with the USPTO. This trademark was originally filed for registration right after the release of the iPhone App Store in 2008.
Microsoft even quoted the incident of Amazon's Appstore for Android in a recent complaint, arguing that this is a clear example that there is a "competitive need" for generic use of the term. Apple was quick to reply this complaint, pointing out that "App Store" is no more of a generic term than Microsoft's ownership of the name "Windows." Apple’s legal response to the complaint writes: "Yet Microsoft, missing the forest for the trees, does not base its motion on a comprehensive evaluation of how the relevant public understands the term APP STORE as a whole."
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