Apple has faces a major setback in its lawsuit against Amazon.com's App store; a federal court judge said this week that she will "probably rule against the company." Apple had argued that Amazon.com's use of the term "app Store" infringed on its trademark and would cause "brand confusion." A federal court judge sees things differently - or at the very least doesn’t believe Apple has a case.
US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton commented that she was "probably" going to deny Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction against Amazon in order to stop it from using the term "app store."
Judge Hamilton told Apple that she had not seen any "real evidence of actual confusion." Because of this, she said it was unlikely that the company would prevail.
"I’m troubled by the showing that you’ve made so far, but that’s where you’re likely not to prevail at this early juncture," Hamilton said during the hearing.
Apple laid its claim to the term "app store" in 2008 with the U.S. Patent Office. The claim was initially rejected, but finally received approval in 2010. Microsoft filed an objection with the agency, saying that the term was too generic. Later it asked the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to deny Apple's trademark application.
While all this was taking place, Apple decided to sue Amazon for opening an "app store."
The company continues to send cease and desist letters to anyone who uses the term, but this lawsuit may throw cold water on Apple's litigious efforts.
Source: Ars Technica
Comments
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
Yeah.
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
Huh, I never associated "app" with "app-ple". My brain always just says "app-lication".
Anyone else think this?
-Austin from Oregon
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Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
Thats part of why the judge is saying he is likely to rule against them. Well that and the fact that they had trouble getting the patent and microsofts efforts to have that thrown out because of how generic it is.
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
I actually assumed that Apple's 'App Store' stood for 'Application'.
Though Apple could (weakly) make the argument that "Application" is an OSX thing since on OSX they are labeled as 'Applications', while on Windows they are labled 'Programs' and under Unix systems they are 'Binaries'... at least if you think of it in terms of a newbie who only knows what their UI says and is not aware of computer jargon in general.
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
There is still an applications folder that's been around since at least Win 95 that has all of the microsoft supplied bonus software (like Notepad and Sound Recorder)
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
Are you sure you do not mean 'Accessories'?
Regardless, I know that they are applications on windows, you know they are applications on windows, but we are not the people they are talking about when the issue of brand confusion comes up.
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
To quote Wario from Mario Party 1: Do'h I missed! Yeah, it's Accessories, but then again, when I first learned DOS, my aunt, followed by my school, told me that programs were applications.
Re: Judge Warns Apple: 'I Will Probably Rule Against You'
My mind has always thought App = Application ever since I touched my first computer.