Apple’s online apps marketplace, App Store, has come to be associated with the company by popular use. So when Amazon decided to use the same term, Apple launched a lawsuit against the e-retailer. The legal tussle ensued back in 2011 and has continued to this day. Now, the court wants the two companies to settle the dispute on their own.
Amazon had initially named its online store as ‘Amazon Appstore for Android.’ But eventually, it trimmed down to ‘Amazon Appstore’, contending that ‘app store’ itself is a generic term and that any entity must be entitled to make use of it.
However, Apple seemed to have a different point of view on this and went to the court for what it claimed to be ‘false advertising’ on Amazon’s part. The iPhone maker’s chief objection was that by calling its store ‘Appstore’, Amazon was essentially trying to fool users into confusing its own store with that of Apple’s. Thus the charge for false advertisement.
The courts seemed tired of the rather childish tussle; the U.S. Judge Elizabeth Laporte has told both companies to bring forth their attorneys and meet on March 21. On the date, the court has ordered, the two companies must sit down and try to settle the whole issue between them.
In case the duo fail to reach an agreement, that would take the whole dispute to trial. And we can expect a rather long and heated debate over the exact nature of the term ‘appstore’ and similar other arguments. For the sake of brevity, if nothing else, we do hope that the out-of-court settlement works out.
Courtesy: CNET
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I hope it goes to trial, so future users of generic terms won’t have more stupid lawsuits looming over them