back to article Apple sues Amazon over 'App Store' name

Apple has sued Amazon.com, claiming the retail giant is using its "App Store" trademark without proper consent. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple filed suit on March 18 seeking to prevent Amazon from using the app store name and to win unspecified damages. "Amazon has begun improperly using Apple’s App Store mark in connection …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Chris Hatfield
    FAIL

    This fails as much as Rebecca Black (Gotta have bowl, gotta have cereal)

    I love Apple products, but happy to call them out when they are being ABSURD.

    They are being twats! Stop wasting Amazon's money (through legal fees), just because you have mountains of cash.

  2. Steve Evans

    If apple have their way...

    In twenty years the only people on the planet with any money will be lawyers.

    Oh, and BMW salesmen.

    Apple - grow up.

    US patent and trademark system - sort yourself out! If you keep this up the rest of the world will be shortly joining China and just ignore it!

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Black Helicopters

      re: If apple have their way...

      Surely you mean Audi salesmen. Haven't you heard that Audi's are the new twat mobile. With their ever so sexy lights, what twat, sorry lawyer could resist one?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    What do the US patent office (is it them?) call..

    ..the room where all of the applications for trademark are stored?

  4. Mick Gower

    But what if I...

    Whatever Apple force Amazon to call the store I will still call it an App Store because it's a store where I buy apps.

  5. pullenuk
    WTF?

    App Store

    <get handed papers>

    What? Not allowed to say App Store unless I got an iphone? Thats stupid.

    (That appears to be the way Apple is heading)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The way it should be

    The same thing would have happened in reverse if Apple had used Amazon's infamous 1-Click(tm) trademark on their store.

    Apple simply got there first, just as they created the smartphone market and made graphical interfaces affordable to the public. Android fanbois and Google pawns should learn to deal with it like adults and stop whining.

    1. Greg J Preece
      Coffee/keyboard

      *Splutter*

      "Apple simply got there first, just as they created the smartphone market"

      *Hack* *Cough* *Splutter* .....What??

      "and made graphical interfaces affordable to the public."

      ...............WHAT????

      Seriously dude, what weed are you smoking, and can I get a drag on that?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Take care

        No need for drugs. It's the reality of it.

        Was the smartphone market anywhere near what it became after the iPhone? Ask any mobile network, they were the most shocked.

        As for graphical interfaces before Apple there was the research Xerox Alto athe the PARC. The Apple Lisa was first commercially sold personal computer to have a GUI.

        If this comes as a shock to you maybe you should refrain from drinking coffee at your keyboard,

        you'll be in for plenty more accidents.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          But.....

          There is an important difference between "created" and having "developed and expanded". The latter is what Apple did. The former belongs to sundry other fogottens,

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Like the light bulb

            werdsmith, I said created the market, not invented. There's a subtle but relevant difference.

            A bit like trying to argue that Thomas Edison did not create the light bulb, despite it having been invented by Joseph Swan and others well before.

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Yes, and

              I said that they developed and expanded the market, not created. It's not a subtle difference but a huge one.

              Otherwise you are saying there were no N95s, Palm Treos, Sendo Xs and various others before 2007 when Apple came out with their restricted multitasking iPhone 1 with no published API feature phone.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Thanks for all your comments

                I'm sorry the Apple Lisa was not to everyone's pockets, although I know people who bought it.

                Still way cheaper than that Xerox Star in the sense you didn't have to own a gold mine to buy it.

                takuhii I would love to hear about the GUI before it that were affordable. Please don't include pencil and paper.

                I'm sorry you don't agree with created the market, but "developed and expanded" is way to subtle.

                Maybe we could agree half-way, "explosively expanded beyond all recogniton" suits better? Like in the recent announcement of 8000% growth in data traffic at AT&T since the launch of the iPhone - I know it doesn't include just the iPhone, but just trying to show who started it.

                1. werdsmith Silver badge

                  #Reverse Lewis Mettier

                  OK you are right. Insist immediately that the book of Genesis is rewritten and the word "god" is replaced with "Jobs" using iWork search and replace facility - the one and only truly original.

                  Of course, Apple authored "Origin of the Species" for non-creationists.

                  Or you could just own up that you are so blatantly wrong.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Now that's just crazy talk werdsmith

                    I'm not saying that at all, but the facts are Apple used the words "App Store" for selling mobile apps first, they trademarked it in that context and therefore by the laws which govern our society they have the right to defend it.

                    Where am I wrong?

                2. Anonymous Coward
                  FAIL

                  re: I would love to hear about the GUI before it that were affordable

                  Not before it, but roughly contemporaneous and actually affordable and popular - GEM on the Atari ST. Apparently you already had your Apple blinkers on even that long ago.

              2. Shonko Kid
                Pint

                Calm down dear...

                I think the word your looking for is 'popularised'

        2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
          Boffin

          Dude, if you're going to correct people....

          ....better learn to check your facts.

          Xerox released a commercial system with a GUI in 1981, the Xerox Star. Apple have always been second to market, it's what they do really well - taking a concept and refining the style and engineering to make it a success.

          GJC

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Dude (@Geoff)

            What part of "accessible to the public" and "personal computer" did you miss in my posts?

            Sorry for correcting you on that, I do agree you other point.

            1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
              Boffin

              @Reversie

              The Xerox Star was a commercially available personal computer, and cost $16,000 in 1981 - a lot of cash, I grant you. But then, the Lisa cost $10,000 in 1983, so the same sort of ball park given the pace of advance in electronics then and now.

              Of course, both of these systems failed because of the price, mostly, as demonstrated by the Macintosh when it released in 1984 (Interesting that Apple seem to have had a twelve month release cycle even back then, now that I look at the dates).

              GJC

          2. Ken MAC

            Xerox Star

            Yup used one of them whilst on a contract at Xerox.UK. Great bit of kit. I remember the TV ads where you dragged and dropped a document icon to a remote printer icon and it just worked...

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Cool..

          So you agree that they like to nick (and patent/trademark) other peoples ideas. We agree on something then.

        4. werdsmith Silver badge

          Distortion...must resist

          That's the distorted reality of it.

          Apple didn't create, they developed and expanded. Sundry other forgottens created. Important difference, usually overlooked by any expert in Jobsonian philosophy.

        5. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

          Calling the Lisa affordable

          is stretching credulity to breaking point. The Lisa flopped not because of the features and performance, but because of the price (USD 9,995 in 1983!!). The Mac was much more affordable.

        6. Richard 120
          WTF?

          What?

          Are you mental?

          Smartphone market didn't exist before Apple made it? So there were no smartphones before 2007?

          Fucking hell, someone better tell RIM, Nokia, Samsung, IBM, Motorola they shouldn't have bothered and they should just stop now, and let Apple trademark the word smartphone. If they could they would.

          I get it, you believe the hype that apple make everything and they were there first for everything, but let's face it, that's bullshit.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      'Apple simply got their first...'

      LOL

      Nowhere near...but they love to trademark/copyright other peoples ideas/names first - if that is what you meant.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC

        "Nowhere near...but they love to trademark/copyright other peoples ideas/names first - if that is what you meant."

        So let's hear it, who used the name "App store" in the context of selling mobile applications before Apple? (and remember context matters in trademark issues)

        I just love cutting through hatebois FUD and lies in the morning.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Cut this

          http://www.handango.com/content/Mobile-App-Store

          Storing apps since 1999.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Handago

            werdsmith, I'll give you a F+ for effort, but keep trying.

            Handago was not using the term app store before Apple released iOS 2.0 with the App Store.

            They even called it "mobile software" back then.

            http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20080828094951/http://www.handago.com/

            1. Clive Summerfield

              They also called them apps back in 2001

              http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20011102020041/http://www.handango.com/

              Bottom right of front page:

              "Developing the next killer app for handhelds? Become a Handango Software Partner."

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                @Clive

                There are some mentions of "app" intermixed with "mobile software" but def no "App Store".

                1. Clive Summerfield

                  @RLM

                  So this statement of yours...

                  "They even called it "mobile software" back then."

                  ... was more than a little disingenuous, as Handango were refering to "mobile software" as "apps" way back in 2001.

                  Now I buy things from shops or stores, so Handandgo were selling "apps" in a "store" back in 2001. Therefore "App Store" and "Appstore" are realistically too generic, though the latter has the advantage of being a more artificial construct.

                2. Richard 120

                  So...

                  App is generic, store is generic, but when you use them together they're the product of Apple?

                  As it's been pointed out before in the context of "stores", the Apple app store is not the only one to sell "apps" and by a long way it was not the first to do so, it's like Clarks trying to trademark "shoe shop".

                  Give it up Reverse Lewis Mettier.

        2. Dapprman
          Alert

          @ Reverse Lewis Mettier 11:51

          I think you'll find that Handango were using the term App Store before Apple even thought about doing a phone, in fact even possibly before Palm launched their first phone.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @Dapprman

            I've pretty much moved away from this thread as it was getting boring.. I've made my point quite well.

            Still wow that's really news Dapprman, and I'll find it where?

            "Handango announces it's Mobile App Store. Shopping Handango just got easier! Browse Handangos selection of mobile apps and games right from your Windows Mobile phone at m.handango.com." (Sept, 2009) http://www.techrepublic.com/software/handango-mobile-app-store-mobile/1158449

            Not in their PR apparently.

            1. Richard 120

              Re:I've made my point quite well.

              No, not unless your point was that you're delusional, in which case, yes, well done.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Delusional?

                Maybe only in thinking more people could read.

                Now I get the reason Google prefers to make those really patronising videos. Maybe I should look into it.

                1. serviceWithASmile

                  RE: very long thread

                  obvious troll is obvious

        3. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Who used the term Mobile Phone before....

          Perhaps Nokia (or whoever) should sue Apple for using the term 'Mobile Phone' - hey it's a phone that is mobile - but the 2 terms were not used together until Nokia (or somebody) made it popular - same argument. But everybody would agree that would be daft right, 'cos its a description - a phone that is mobile = mobile phone.

          Unless of course the distinction here is that Apple are allowed to trademark the amazing leap forward that was abbreviating Application into App - which of course nobody else thought of.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Apple sue Lewis Mettier, the fake over 'Fanboy' trademark abuse.

      Unfortunately, the term fanboy (fanboi) defined as 'a person who is in denial about any shorcomings about merchandise or organisations they support, and who will jump to the defence of even the most absurd and patently rediculous idea' is also an Apple Trademark.

      Apple trademark application for the term 'Fanboy/Fanboi' states "The definition of fanboy [q.v] as associated with technology was an original concept of Apple (tm), and any reference to that term is overwhelmingly aimed at Apple (tm) users - therefore the use of the term for other products or organisations is merely an attempt to jump on the Apple fanboy wagon."

    4. takuhii
      FAIL

      WTF?!

      Seriously, you think what you are blathering is true?!

      There were smartphones before Apple came along;

      There were GUIs before Apple came along, affordable ones at that;

      I am neither an Apple nor Google Fanboi, but your comments are unfounded and ridiculous and could only be those of someone who works for Apple...

      Do a bit of research before you spout off!

    5. The Fuzzy Wotnot
      Pint

      "Wake up and smell what you shovelling!"

      MIght be true, Amazon might have sued had the boot been on the other foot but you still sound like an Apple shill/troll/fanboi. The point is Apple are suing for the use to call something by two perfectly standard English words in use by almost everyone, everyday.

      APP and STORE, these are common English words,FFS!

      You make me embarrassed to admit I own Apple desktop kit, nothing's perfect least of Apple or their kit, got that? I can handle the problems I get on my Apple kit with slightly more ease than other kit, that's all.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Fuzzy

        1-Click or Windows are also a common English terms. These are very usual company shenanigans, I hardly see the point in people getting all excited about it.

        Apple took the mark and application first, tough luck companies. Find other common English words to describe what you're selling and make them the new standard. Everyone called web search "searching" before Google came around.

        1. Blitterbug
          FAIL

          1-Click is NOT generic!

          Peeps have been calling small applications 'Apps' for years. An App Store is a generic term, though Apple were first to market with an actual operation using that name. How the hell can anyone see the name '1-Click' as being anything other than a trademark?

          Can't you see you're even pissing off the Apple fans with your obtuseness?

      2. MuddyBoots

        Common English Words

        Before we talk about apple attempting to copyright "common english words" such as "App Store", lets look at Microsoft who copyrighted "Windows" and "Vista"...

    6. Naughtyhorse
      Troll

      methinks

      'someone' will be filing a patent application for 'asshat' as we speak.

      while thay may not have invented the term 'asshat' they surely have developed the content and scope of asshattery to the extent that when people utter the word asshat in everyday speech the utteree will immediately envision mactard fanbois in general, and the grand master asshat himself mettier in particular.

      although the idea that someone would want to infringe this patent would ultimately render the application moot

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Naughtyhorse

        People don't file patent applications for words.

        Please try to keep up.

    7. David Neil
      WTF?

      Wut?

      "made graphical interfaces affordable to the public"

      They have done a lot of things with making people appreciate the design of their products, but affordable is certainly not their forté.

    8. patrick_bateman

      lol

      so apple made smart phones....nope

      they just marketed there first one well and gave loads away to celebs which then it caught on with all the 'hello' people then 'business' people picked them up.

      nokia smartphones, ones with a full keyboard on, windoze mobile, not herd of any of these then i take it.

    9. Nordrick Framelhammer
      WTF?

      WTF?

      "Apple simply got there first, just as they created the smartphone market"

      Say what? Dude, you have got to give me the name of our dealer as he is selling you some righteous stuff!

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like