Apple denied injunction on Amazon's use of Appstore

From InfoWorld: A California court denied Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction on Amazon.com's use of the term "Appstore" in a trademark infringement case on Wednesday.

Apple has not established that its "App Store" mark is famous, in the sense of being "prominent" and "renowned," and 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, District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California said in an 18-page order.

Apple did have substantially exclusive use of "App Store" when it launched its service a little over three years ago, and spent a great deal of money in advertising and publicity, but the term appears to have been used more widely by other companies as time has passed, Judge Hamilton said.

Moreover, there is no evidence that Amazon intended to create an association between its Android apps and Apple's apps, and there is no evidence of actual association, Hamilton added.

Apple filed the suit in March against Amazon's use of Appstore for its online store of applications for devices using the Android mobile operating system. One of Apple's arguments is that as both companies sell through the Internet, and Amazon also offers products from Apple, consumers may be confused when they find Amazon using Apple's mark for a mobile download service.

View: Article @ Source Site