Apple continues its relentless efforts to claim exclusive rights to the term “App Store.”
Like an animal aggressively marking its territory, Apple is taking Amazon to court and suing over the online retail giant’s use of the term “App Store.”
The lawsuit comes as competition heats up between the two companies. Apple and Amazon compete against each other in many businesses including e-books as well as digital music and movie sales.
“Consumers of mobile software downloads are likely to be confused as to whether Amazon’s mobile software download service is sponsored or approved by Apple,” Apple said in its complaint filed in federal court for the Northern District of California.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a spokeswoman for Apple would only say: “We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers.”
For now, Amazon isn’t formally commenting.
The filing says Amazon began using the phrase around January of this year to refer to its mobile-software download service. Amazon, however, cites it as “Appstore,” with no space and a lower case ‘s’.
Despite Apple’s trademark having been approved by authorities, “it is also being challenged by Microsoft Corp. and is currently subject to proceedings before an appeals board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,” the WSJ reports.
