Not a week goes by without word of an Apple court battle and in the continuing saga of Apple vs. Amazon over the exclusivity of the “App Store” name, a California Federal Judge has taken a pin to the Jobs Squad’s inflated illusions of self-importance and told it like it is.
Apple’s grandiose claim is that “Amazon has unlawfully used the App Store mark to solicit software developers throughout the United States”. Amazon launched its own place of purchase for mobile software for Android apps back in March but despite Apple’s massive marketing push, the US District Court for Northern California were not sold on the “fame” of the App Store title.
“The court finds that Apple has not established a likelihood of success on its dilution claim. First, Apple has not established that its ‘App Store’ mark is famous, in the sense of being ‘prominent’ and ‘renowned’. The evidence does show that Apple has spent a great deal of money on advertising and publicity, and has sold/provided/furnished a large number of apps from its AppStore, and the evidence also reflects actual recognition of the ‘App Store’ mark” declares Judge Phyllis Hamilton.
She adds “However, there is also evidence that the term ‘app store’ is used by other companies as a descriptive term for a place to obtain software applications for mobile devices.” – *Told*
Apple’s role as the playground bully might be over, in regards to this case anyway.
100,000 apps are now available for Apple’s iPad – read about them HERE.
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