Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL ) V Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN ): “App store” is too generic a term

The problem started when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL ) issued a trademark claim against Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN ), stating that the latter has used their iconic term for software downloading services, by calling it “Amazon appstore” instead of making it clearer that the application store was meant for android phones. However, this Wednesday, Amazon retaliated to this claim by stating that the term “app store” was a generic one, and was being used as a generic one, not just by customers, but also by people with high positions in Apple.

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In a hearing on Wednesday, at a U.S District Court in Oakland, California, Amazon categorically declined to accept the validity of the claim by Apple, by stating that “app store” did not just refer to the application store by Apple. The term has now come to refer to application download services rendered by many companies. 

In order to solidify the argument even further, Amazon stated that the Chief Executive for Apple, Tim Cook, had used the term “app stores” to refer to the application software by other companies, for other smartphones. They said that not just Tim Cook, but also Steve Jobs has used the same term in a generic fashion, thereby making the grounds shaky for Apple so-called claims. They went on to add that in order for Apple to pose a serious claim, they would need to refute the words of their CEOs, which is not matter which can be taken lightly.

Apple first filed the lawsuit in the month of March, 2011, about Amazon using the term “App Store”, and then later added a false advertising claim to it in the month of November of the same year, following Amazon’s decision to rename their online application store as “Amazon Appstore” instead of sticking to "Amazon Appstore for Android". Apple stated that this would lead to confusion amongst customers.

According to the U.S trademark Laws, if a company is unable to protect its trademark names, then the names are liable to get plagiarized in some way or the other, thereby resulting in becoming a generic term, as has happened in the case of the “app store”. 

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