Apple is Suing Amazon for Trademark Infringement Over "Appstore"

[jntdroid]

Let me take it a step further....

Let's say I own a grocery store and it's called "Tender Rebel Groceries". I have made a great name for myself locally. Now a vacant lot across the street has opened up and someone buys it. Low and behold they put a grocery store there as well. Completely fair and they have every right to challenge me to become the new Grocery King but one day I come into my store and notice their new sign out front and they have named their store "TenderRebel Groceries". Should I just let them market themselves on the success I built on my name? Or should I file a lawsuit for them trying to piggy back off my success???

You bet your butt I am going to file a lawsuit. They have every single right in the world to be a grocery store but they have no right to infringe on my successful brand name.

To me it's more like naming something "quik-e-mart, quickie mart, quicky mart" now they are all spelled different, yet they sound the same. As people have pointed out in other places, app is a description of what they sell in their store, short for application, it's just too broad of a name/description. So if i spell it @ppSt0re or appstor does it get the same rights, if definitely should not. This lawsuit will not go anywhere until the one with microsoft and apple gets finished, to even see if the courts uphold "app store" as a real trademark or if the government overstepped it's boundaries on this one. Now i will say to people that think this is dumb, that there is no police to keep people in line from stealing a name or using it without authorization, and if this does somehow constitute an infringement, and apple looks the other way, then they are basically condoning the violation of it. So for that, i can completely understand why they are doing it, but i don't think it will go anywhere.

I guess my only question is, would it even be called an App Store if Apple hadn't started that? And this is a legitimate question, not meant to be sarcastic, b/c I wasn't around the mobile world much before the iPhone, so I really don't know... but if it wasn't for Apple, isn't it possible it could've been called, generically speaking, something like "mobile program store" or "program market" or "mini-software store" or something else generic like that? Would they even be known as "apps" if it wasn't for Apple starting that? I get that they are applications, but I don't remember growing up saying "hey I need to go home and install this application on my Dos 5.0 machine".

 

[Jahmakan]

Let me take it a step further....

Let's say I own a grocery store and it's called "Tender Rebel Groceries". I have made a great name for myself locally. Now a vacant lot across the street has opened up and someone buys it. Low and behold they put a grocery store there as well. Completely fair and they have every right to challenge me to become the new Grocery King but one day I come into my store and notice their new sign out front and they have named their store "TenderRebel Groceries". Should I just let them market themselves on the success I built on my name? Or should I file a lawsuit for them trying to piggy back off my success???

You bet your butt I am going to file a lawsuit. They have every single right in the world to be a grocery store but they have no right to infringe on my successful brand name.

To me it's more like naming something "quik-e-mart, quickie mart, quicky mart" now they are all spelled different, yet they sound the same. As people have pointed out in other places, app is a description of what they sell in their store, short for application, it's just too broad of a name/description. So if i spell it @ppSt0re or appstor does it get the same rights, if definitely should not. This lawsuit will not go anywhere until the one with microsoft and apple gets finished, to even see if the courts uphold "app store" as a real trademark or if the government overstepped it's boundaries on this one. Now i will say to people that think this is dumb, that there is no police to keep people in line from stealing a name or using it without authorization, and if this does somehow constitute an infringement, and apple looks the other way, then they are basically condoning the violation of it. So for that, i can completely understand why they are doing it, but i don't think it will go anywhere.

I guess my only question is, would it even be called an App Store if Apple hadn't started that? And this is a legitimate question, not meant to be sarcastic, b/c I wasn't around the mobile world much before the iPhone, so I really don't know... but if it wasn't for Apple, isn't it possible it could've been called, generically speaking, something like "mobile program store" or "program market" or "mini-software store" or something else generic like that? Would they even be known as "apps" if it wasn't for Apple starting that? I get that they are applications, but I don't remember growing up saying "hey I need to go home and install this application on my Dos 5.0 machine".

And that's the thing. Were applications ever called "apps" before Apple promoted the name? Never heard of or seen that. And for people complaining trademarking generic names, Windows anyone?

 

[jntdroid]

Still love this:

Fruit trees are suing Apple for trademark infringement. Its all good.

Still shocked by this:

Yeah just like the susan g komen foundation sueing other non profit organizations for using the word "cure" ..

Not to derail things too much...

 

[New2u]

To me it's more like naming something "quik-e-mart, quickie mart, quicky mart" now they are all spelled different, yet they sound the same. As people have pointed out in other places, app is a description of what they sell in their store, short for application, it's just too broad of a name/description. So if i spell it @ppSt0re or appstor does it get the same rights, if definitely should not. This lawsuit will not go anywhere until the one with microsoft and apple gets finished, to even see if the courts uphold "app store" as a real trademark or if the government overstepped it's boundaries on this one. Now i will say to people that think this is dumb, that there is no police to keep people in line from stealing a name or using it without authorization, and if this does somehow constitute an infringement, and apple looks the other way, then they are basically condoning the violation of it. So for that, i can completely understand why they are doing it, but i don't think it will go anywhere.

I guess my only question is, would it even be called an App Store if Apple hadn't started that? And this is a legitimate question, not meant to be sarcastic, b/c I wasn't around the mobile world much before the iPhone, so I really don't know... but if it wasn't for Apple, isn't it possible it could've been called, generically speaking, something like "mobile program store" or "program market" or "mini-software store" or something else generic like that? Would they even be known as "apps" if it wasn't for Apple starting that? I get that they are applications, but I don't remember growing up saying "hey I need to go home and install this application on my Dos 5.0 machine".

And that's the thing. Were applications ever called "apps" before Apple promoted the name? Never heard of or seen that. And for people complaining trademarking generic names, Windows anyone?

Found this among another forum

What do you buy at the App Store? Apps. If someone new to a smartphone were looking to buy an app, they would probably first think of going to some sort of store for those apps. The abbreviation App was used for application software long before Apple repurposed it to mean iOS App.

Windows is entirely different. Yes, windows is a common word, but Windows in relation to computer operating systems is pretty specific. It's not like Microsoft named their OS "Operating System" and then starting suing people who used the term.

This is pretty much something i found that sums up alot of what i had to say. That with the previous posting about the lawsuits from microsoft vs lindows and the one from microsoft vs apple. They bring out the actual facts of the matter.

 

[kptphalkon]

I just cannot muster up enough words to make a decent comment about the stupidity of these frivolous, money wasting lawsuits.

As was mentioned, the supreme court had found that you can't, copyright or trademark or whatever applies to it, commonly used words. I don't believe that Apple having 'fathered' the term App will be their defending point, but quite the opposite.

 

[aaf709]

Let me take it a step further....

Let's say I own a grocery store and it's called "Tender Rebel Groceries". I have made a great name for myself locally. Now a vacant lot across the street has opened up and someone buys it. Low and behold they put a grocery store there as well. Completely fair and they have every right to challenge me to become the new Grocery King but one day I come into my store and notice their new sign out front and they have named their store "TenderRebel Groceries". Should I just let them market themselves on the success I built on my name? Or should I file a lawsuit for them trying to piggy back off my success???

You bet your butt I am going to file a lawsuit. They have every single right in the world to be a grocery store but they have no right to infringe on my successful brand name.

You're right there. Although the ONLY place I heard about Amazon selling applications for the Android phones (so Apple won't sue me) is here on this site. No adds on TV and only now on the main Amazon site. When I saw the announcement on this site I didn't exactly think, "Oh pooh, look what Apple has; a new place to get there apps. Gee, I wish Amazon would sell apps for Android as well."

 

[OneTenderRebel]

Let me take it a step further....

Let's say I own a grocery store and it's called "Tender Rebel Groceries". I have made a great name for myself locally. Now a vacant lot across the street has opened up and someone buys it. Low and behold they put a grocery store there as well. Completely fair and they have every right to challenge me to become the new Grocery King but one day I come into my store and notice their new sign out front and they have named their store "TenderRebel Groceries". Should I just let them market themselves on the success I built on my name? Or should I file a lawsuit for them trying to piggy back off my success???

You bet your butt I am going to file a lawsuit. They have every single right in the world to be a grocery store but they have no right to infringe on my successful brand name.

You're right there. Although the ONLY place I heard about Amazon selling applications for the Android phones (so Apple won't sue me) is here on this site. No adds on TV and only now on the main Amazon site. When I saw the announcement on this site I didn't exactly think, "Oh pooh, look what Apple has; a new place to get there apps. Gee, I wish Amazon would sell apps for Android as well."

That wasn't the point I was trying to make though. My point was Apple has built success off the name "app store". They have promoted the crap out of it. Amazon using the name "appstore" can easily be seen as trying to piggy back off of apple's success of the term "app store". Just my opinion though. I know people aren't going to think the amazon appstore is an addition to apple's app store. It's all about brand name.