Apple and Microsoft: battle and "App Store" brand
In the battle for dominance in the booming app business, a power struggle is brewing between Apple and Microsoft.
As the U.S. industry portal Cnet reports according to press text, Microsoft filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday that vehemently opposes Apple's patent claim to the brand name "App Store." The application states that the term is simply too general to be registered only for a specific application from a single manufacturer.
In the application that Microsoft submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the company argues that "App Store" is a very generic term. It is representative of a whole range of different retail services that use app platforms as a distribution channel. If the trademark rights were awarded to a single provider, competing companies would no longer have any chance of using the term for their own offerings, which would in turn result in competitive disadvantages, Microsoft criticizes.
Less than a week after launching its own App Store in 2008, Apple had already attempted to secure trademark rights to the "App Store" term. However, a final decision by the U.S. patent judges is still pending.
