When Amazon launched its Android store, it irked Apple for a reason very close to its heart. Amazon called it an ‘AppStore’. The term that sounds so common in 2011, was coined by Apple when it announced the iTunes App Store for selling apps on the iPhone OS platform. Overtime, the iTunes AppStore has grown to 400,000 apps and is one of the key selling points for Apple’s iPhone and other iOS devices.
No wonder Apple sued Amazon earlier this year claiming its right over the term ‘AppStore’. But now Amazon carries the name too and Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Amazon to strip Apple off the claim on the term ‘App Store’.
While the case is on since March 2011, Judge Phyllis Hamilton has finally indicated that he would ‘probably’ rule in Amazons favor as Apple has not been able to convincingly demonstrate that users would get confused by Amazons use of the term App Store. Apple has some work at hand to demonstrate that users can get confused by this, but for now Amazon has the upper hand.