Microsoft Challenges Apple’s ‘App Store’ Trademark Filing

Source: thenextweb.com - Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Microsoft is challenging Apple’s trademark claim for the term ‘App Store’, arguing that the term it’s a generic name, a name that it believes Apple can not lay exclusive claim to. The move follows Apple’s attempts to trademark the term, registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to prevent other companies and rival application marketplaces from being able go under the same heading. Microsoft is fighting the application, registering its own opposition filing ( PDF here ) with the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board stating that “undisputed evidence shows that ‘app store’ is a generic name for a store offering apps”. Microsoft’s lawyers write in the summary judgement that: “Any secondary meaning or fame Apple has in ‘App Store’ is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term ‘app store’ into a protectable trademark. Apple cannot block competitors from using a generic name. ‘App store’ is generic and therefore in the public domain and free for all competitors to use.” Microsoft argues that the media now use the generic term to cover lots of different mobile application marketplaces and is not specific to the iPhone, it even states that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has used the phrase generically – he was quoted referring to Android Market competitors by the term: In addition to Google’s own app marketplace, Amazon, Verizon and Vodafone have all announced that they are creating their own app stores for Android. Th