Judge won’t stop Amazon from using ‘Appstore’

By Aemon Malone July 7, 2011

A federal judge has denied Apple’s injunction seeking to immediately stop Amazon from calling its Android app portal the “Amazon Appstore for Android.” Apple, believing it’s legally entitled to the “App Store” trademark, issued several cease and desist letters to Amazon and then followed-up with a lawsuit against the online retailer in March. Amazon filed a countersuit in April, claiming that “app store” is too generic to warrant trademark status.

Pending the outcome of the suit, Apple filed an injunction hoping to temporarily stop Amazon from using “Appstore.” A judge in California today issued an 18-page opinion explaining why the court wouldn’t comply with Apple’s wishes.

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“The evidence does show that Apple has spent a great deal of money on advertising and publicity, and has sold/provided/furnished a large number of apps from its AppStore, and the evidence also reflects actual recognition of the ‘App Store’ mark,” said Judge Judge Phyllis Hamilton in her opinion. “However, 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.”

Apple launched its App Store back in 2008. Amazon opened its Appstore for Android in March of this year. Both companies will head into court in October to settle the trademark dispute.

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