Amazon has won the right to continue using the name 'Appstore' for the Android application store it launched earlier this year.
Back in March, Amazon launched its own version of the Android app store. Dubbed Amazon Appstore, the company's launch celebrations were cut short a week later when Apple filed a lawsuit against the company. Apple had already filed for a trademark on the term 'App Store' earlier in the year and though that application was being contested by Microsoft (Redmond says it's too generic a term to trademark), the Cupertino-based iPhone maker didn't want Amazon using the 'App Store' term. Apple said at the time that attempts to contact Apple regarding its use of the term did not result in a "substantive response." Perhaps Amazon was right not to respond to Apple, though, as this week a judge ruled in the etailer's favor.
Ars Technica reports that Apple has been denied the temporary injunction it was seeking against Amazon after U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that Apple did not have sufficient evidence to prove infringement (only two of eight legal criteria to establish infringement were supported by Apple's evidence). Hamilton also denied the injunction on the basis that Apple had shown no evidence of dilution or tarnishment of the "App Store" trademark.
Though Apple was the first to use the 'App Store' name (for its iOS application store) and is eager to ensure it is the only one allowed to use it, the phrase has become a generic term for the many app stores now available for BlackBerry, Android, WebOS, Nokia and Windows Phone 7 devices.
I'm going to start up a grocery store chain and call it "Grocery Store" and trademark the name. I will then sue anybody who attempts to use the term "Grocery Store". I will argue that people are too stupid to know that other grocery stores aren't my "Grocery Store". I will also argue that my store is the only one that sells "Groceries".
App store is too generic Apple. Sorry.
I'm going to start up a grocery store chain and call it "Grocery Store" and trademark the name. I will then sue anybody who attempts to use the term "Grocery Store". I will argue that people are too stupid to know that other grocery stores aren't my "Grocery Store". I will also argue that my store is the only one that sells "Groceries".
App store is too generic Apple. Sorry.
Same goes for any other company. "App store" worthy of a suit? Give me a break.
What I'm wondering is this: Blackberry has App World, Google has the Market, Windows Phone has the Marketplace and Apple has App Store. So Amazon couldn't pick a unique name like all the other companies did and instead decided to use the same name as Apple?
They don't have to go unique if they don't want to. Its too generic of a name, no one should own it.
And just as @ericburnby accurately pointed out, Amazon didn't win anything more than the right to continue using the name until the court issues a final decision.
What the court was ruling on was a peliminary injunction filed by Apple. It was simply a request that the court enjoin, or prevent, Amazon from using the term AppStore until the case is heard and ruled upon.
The burden of proof is pretty high for what Apple was requesting, and because the outcome wasn't clear, the court denied the request to prevent Amazon from using the name.
The case will continue precisely because the term AppStore is not generic, as declared by the court. Apple still has a chance at winning this lawsuit. It is a long shot, but there is case law to support their position, and judging from Apple's attitude toward there intellectual property, they won't give this one up easily.
2 thumbs up Judge Phyllis Hamilton.
So Apple spends a lot of time talking to itself...
Wait, i just realized why they never got an answer this way: Infinite Loop.
LOL AWESOME
Sorry but your logic fails in that "Grocery Store" has prior use and too generic which would prevent Apple from Trademarking it. Before Apple launched it's App store how many existed? Zero. There was no such store using that name before. Apples not suing Amazon for selling Apps, but for using it's name.
A more accurate example would be you going and opening a store called rwpritchett store that sells X. Then a someone else in town opens their own store and calls it rwpritchett store also that sells the same thing. I hope even you can see how some people could be confused and think that they are the same store.
The previous example was far more accurate then yours since both stores sells Apps and both have that part in their name. Not something unique like your professionally named rwpritchett that sells app. Thats would have been a trademark. App however is not, hopefully you know that apps existed long before apple took that (like so much else but that is off topic)
Also if you cant tell the difference between the apple app store and the amazon app store, get off the internet..... asap