A new one in Europe, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Amazon have filed formal applications for a declaration of invalidity against Apple’s trademarks for “App Store” and “Appstore” with the Community Trade Mark office in Europe.



A Microsoft representative said in a statement:
“‘App store,’ like ‘toy store’ or ‘book store,’ is a generic term that should continue to be available for everyone to use for stores that sell apps.”


The claims specifically call out Apple CEO Steve Jobs for referring to competing applications markets on another phone platform–specifically Google’s Android–as “App Stores.” The claims also highlight the fact that several other retailers make use of the term, including Shopify, Sendmail, and DirectTV.


Until now Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


In U.S.Apple’s attempts to trademark the term “App Store” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office back in 2008 resulted in Microsoft launching a legal battle, complete with both sides obtaining linguists, and other language experts to argue whether the two words were synonymous with Apple’s App Store, or mobile application stores in general.
attempts.


Back in March, Apple sued Amazon over its use of the “Appstore” in the title of its mobile application store for Android devices. At the time, an Apple representative said Amazon’s word choice could “confuse and mislead customers.” Amazon responded by countersuing, and followed a similar party line to Microsoft, saying Apple’s claims were too generic.


Are these companies will succeed in its new lawsuit in Europe? What will the Determination?
Imp0rtant P0sts Fr0m Redsn0w.us:

Tags:

CONTACT US

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?