Apple fails to get US 'App Store' trademark injunction
Apple's claim that it owns the trademark "app store" has been dismissed by a US court. The computer giant was seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon calling its "app store" the "Appstore". Apple claimed that "App Store" was a distinctive mark, even though the words app and store are well-known and well-understood. …
See title and smile!
The word that is missing from the title is "preliminary", but don't let the UK focused anti-fanboys stop celebrating,,,
It's not stopping us from celebrating as it's a step in the right direction. What would your reaction to Tesco attempting to trademark "Grocery Store"?
Apple didn't coin the word "app", it's been used by developers for decades - I found an old floppy of programs I'd written as a teenager, care to guess what the folder that contained them was called?
*Not an anti-fanboi, am an Android developer (amongst others), recommend Apple products when applicable, loath vendor tie-ins.
...the word "the" as I have used it all my life. Time to keep others from using my intellectual property and cash in on the (TM) gravy train by charging people 5p every time they use it.
I can't see why someone would want to do such a thing as exploit another's efforts for monetary game.
I can understand, though, your ire at such a concept.
Ah, well I'm off to UKIPTO to file, for my own purpose, a trademark on "a". I recall using it often since I was very young and now I see people using it everyday in common use in the middle of words.
Do I owe you anything?
The term "Windows" was not common when refering to a software product.
Just like Apple in computing
Just like McDonalds in "food"
Just like Amazon in online retail.
App Store is common to a "store" that sell "applications"
However I'm in shock as common sense seems to have won here.
MS ended up paying Lindows ~$25M to change their name rather than let the court decide whether 'windows' was generic in computing before their trademark application. Decisions before the settlement had gone against MS, and there was quite a lot of evidence of earlier generic use presented.
But with the one about the rectangular-container-for-holding-a-single-application-UI I beg to differ.
Under US trademark law, the trademark can be taken if it BECOMES generic later. This happened to Bayer AG with "Aspirin" and the Otis Elevator Company's "Escalator."
In addition, the description of a "Window" in reference to UI design existed before 1980 at PARC, the Lisa in 1983, and Macintosh in 1984, all before Microsoft's release of Windows 1.0 in 1985. So even IF we needed to look and see if already in use in the industry (which we don't, according to US copyright law), it was.
Surely that should be:
Just like "food" in McDonalds
;)
McDonald's in restaurant.
In food they would have lost because any fool could have broken into that e-i-e-i-o song to provide an example of prior usage.
'...the company which trademarked the word "Windows".'
... and I may be remembering incorrectly but didn't they fail to trademark the single word? They managed to only trademark the term "Microsoft Windows".
Point taken though.
Bananas, Oranges and those green ones we can't call... well you know what.
Im keeping an eye out for the shit flavoured silver lining in this judgement.
Remarkable - The News of the World closed, and both this joke of a patent claim and the Amazon attempt to patent the blindingly obvious 'one click' shopping tool in Europe got kicked out of court.
There appears to be an outbreak of sanity today.
CAN WE PLEASE HAVE A NELSON MUNTZ ICON PLEASE.....
or at least a generic "HA HA" one !!!
wow. what with the mornings news of amazon 1-click patent failure...there seems to be a rash of common sense affecting people seriously this week!
"App Store" is a bit to damned generic, and is not a bizarre enough concoction of syllables or letters and is far too close to what it is all the other stores offer: APPS! APPLICATIONS!.... Call it APPLAPPS and it most likely would fly...
Bored with all these stories of imbecile american firms taking each other to court.
bye bye America!
"the easiest-to-use largest app store in the world, preloaded on every iPhone"
Really? Even the first iPhone? The ones released before they actually had an "app store"? More lies from Steve.
....are the two fanbois that are down voting people here. GO AWAY freaks!
I want you all to stop using the phrases, "utter bollocks" and "complete farce", as I have trademarked them!
I like Apple desktop kit but the cult really does seem to think it is annointed by the holy hand of God himself! The cult needs to get it's collective head out of Jobs' arse and take a bite of the reality sandwich before they swallow the kool-aid and the FBI arrive to clean up the mess!
I have "complete bollocks" and "utter farce" and I will allow everyone to use them, unrestrictive and royalty free.
Obviously, anyone can call their application software store an app store, because that's what it is. But maybe they can't brand it App Store, because Apple has prior use. As far as I know, it was also Apple who first used "application" instead of "program" in about 1983.
Anyone can refer to their vacuum cleaner as a hoover, but only Hoover can brand a vacuum cleaner Hoover.
"The App Store" for Apple, and "the Amazon App Store" for Amazon sounds about right to me.
Microsoft were far from first with windows, so it must be "Microsoft Windows" for ever, as far as I am concerned.
been summarily rejected too. I keep wondering whether I should be asking how much the clerk was paid, or how someone that stupid slipped through the hiring process. And the $25 million payment to Lindows to change their name shows M$ [b] KNOWS [/b] they don't have a leg to stand on, because they buy lawyers the way newspapers buy ink.
