14 DAY TRIAL // On Thursday, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has announced the joining of a group of telecoms companies in their fight against Apple's App Store trademark. For those out of the loop, we should note that the Cupertino, United States-based Apple has been working on trademarking 'App Store' and 'Appstore', but companies around the world are challenging this action.
According to them, the term is a generic one, denoting a software storefront, and should not be given to a specific company to use it exclusively.
Some of the largest mobile phone makers in the world, including HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, already filed formal applications with the Community Trade Mark office, in an attempt to obtain a declaration of invalidity for the App Store trademark.
As of Thursday, Microsoft is joining forces in this battle in Europe, after challenging the Apple App Store trademark in the U.S., where it asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to refuse the registration request.
Here's what the company's official statement on the matter reads:
Microsoft and other leading technology companies are seeking to invalidate Apple’s trademark registration for APP STORE and APPSTORE because we believe that they should not have been granted because they both lack distinctiveness.
The undisputed facts establish that ‘app store’ means exactly what it says, a store offering apps, and is generic for the services that the registrations cover.
According to Apple, it would have as much right to claim the trademark on the App Store name as Microsoft had on claiming its for the Windows name.
Apple argues that both terms are generic and, that the App Store exclusive rights should be given to it, just as Microsoft managed to receive exclusivity on the Windows term.
However, as can be seen above, Microsoft and other telecoms companies claim that Apple's terms lack distinctiveness, and that Apple's trademark registration should be invalidated.