Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic

That Apple had the original App Store isn’t under dispute, but should the company have the right to exclude others from using the same term to describe their program repositories ? Microsoft says no, and has this week filed a motion with the US Patent and Trademark Office asking for it to dismiss Apple’s trademark claim for “App Store.” The application seeks to secure for Apple the exclusive use of the term in the context of computer software broadly, not just on the mobile front, but Microsoft is arguing that its constituent words are generic (or simply descriptive) both individually and as a pair. In making its case, the Redmond company cites Steve Jobs himself, whose exposition on the topic of Android fragmentation included specific mention of multiple “app stores” for the Google OS. It would seem this has been brewing for a while, too, as the last update — dated 7th of July, 2010 — on Apple’s trademark application notes there’s a pending opposition to its claim. Now that Microsoft’s escalated its complaint to asking for a summary dismissal, it’ll be interesting to see on which side of the great divide the decision falls. Continue reading Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 12, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry