By: Sharon Urias, Esq.
There has been a trademark battle raging for more than a year-and-a-half over the term “App Store.” When some consumers hear the term, they think of Apple’s iTunes section for apps; however, when others hear the term, they see it as a more generic term for application store.
Apple filed a trademark lawsuit against Amazon over the “App Store” term claiming they have excusive rights to the term. Apple does own the trademark for both the “App Store” and “Appstore” in Europe, but the application for the trademark is still pending in this country.
According to Amazon, the term “app store” is too generic to be considered a trademark, and apparently U.S. Judge Phyllis Hamilton agreed, saying that Apple did not produce the evidence needed to show the use of the term on Amazon confused consumers into thinking they were buying Apple’s iOS store applications.
Last Wednesday, Judge Hamilton in the Oakland Federal Court heard the case with new evidence, but still wasn’t convinced of Apple’s claim. “Everyone who uses a smartphone knows the difference between the Apple iOS system and the Android system,” said Judge Hamilton. Where is the confusion … and how does that contribute to any deception of the part of Amazon?”
Apple submitted a pre-hearing survey that showed consumers identified the term “app store” with Apple products. Even with this evidence, Judge Hamilton was skeptical that consumers were directly asked whether they were deceived.
Amazon is not the only company that objects to Apple’s attempt to own the term. Microsoft, HTC, Sony and Nokia have also stated the term “app store” is too generic to be trademarked. In 2010, “app” was the work of the year with Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO using “app store” when referring to Apple’s competitors.
