Microsoft, handset makers take "App Store" trademark fight to EU

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  • Reply 21 of 55
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steven N. View Post


    http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/amigaos10



    And this is a "Window" as well. Predates MS Windows and it is a computer screen showing a workbench full of "Windows".



    So much for your theory. The term "Window" had been used to define the various "Windows" on GUIs for years before MS named an OS that. The term "App" was unique to Apple prior to 2008. You had applets on the web but not Apps. On Windows you had executables and programs but few called them applications.



    That says it?s named Workbench, not Windows.
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  • Reply 22 of 55
    I also think Apple is going to have a tough sell for App Store and agree, iOS App Store would be a happy medium where Apple is concerned.



    Apple did not create or coin the phrase "App Store" for those of you who have tunnel vision where Apple is concerned. Anyone in the mobile industry knows that Palm and Handango had application stores well before Apple. Back then people even called them app stores .



    In fact here is an example all the way back from 2003.



    http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12876



    And another from 2003 where people were calling applications "apps."



    http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58&page=1



    Again Apple didn't invent these words. They took them and applied it to something for which they expanded on by taking into account previous attempts by other companies.
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  • Reply 23 of 55
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orlando View Post


    Windows is a generic word but it is unique in being used to describe an operating system. You don't say "Windows" to refer in general to GUIs or Operating Systems. If you say "Windows" everyone knows you are talking about the Microsoft product.



    However, people use AppStore very generically to describe all of the different app stores. Say AppStore and people might think you are talking about Apple, Google, Microsoft etc. I find most people say iOS or iPhone AppStore so others know they are talking about the Apple one.



    What bullshit logic is that? You do in fact use the term "windows" to refer to the GUI - apple has been doing that since they launched the first Mac. Further, apple invented and named the first real app store and now, since everyone is hell bent on just copying e everything apple does instead of charting their own course of innovation, they feel they should be able to use it? Give us a break.
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  • Reply 24 of 55
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,481member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    That says it?s named Workbench, not Windows.



    But if you read the text it mentions a window several times
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  • Reply 25 of 55
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by genovelle View Post


    But if you read the text it mentions a window several times



    Using a reference to a window was never an issue, it?s calling your product Windows that confuses the product trademark.
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  • Reply 26 of 55
    nairbnairb Posts: 253member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steven N. View Post


    All of my friends with Android handsets (without exception) refer to the "Android Market" or the "Marketplace". None of them ever refer to the Android Market by the App Store.



    Windows is a very generic term for a GUI based system. For example X11 Window Manager. Not an OS but it shows that Windows is descriptive and generic.



    Likewise, show me the references to "App Store" prior to 2008? Prior to Windows, I can find lots of references to OSes and the term "windows".



    How about this news article about Salesforce AppStore launched as part of their AppExchange - December 12, 2006



    http://www.salesforce.com/company/ne...2/061212-1.jsp



    AppExchange was released in 2005
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  • Reply 27 of 55
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by frugality View Post


    This is a window:







    The fact that MS used that term to refer to a rectangular box on a computer screen is a unique use of the word.



    But Microsoft was not the one who invented the term Windows when referring to windows in a GUI.
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  • Reply 28 of 55
    Well if apple loses this trademark war I vote they rename it iApps or iStore? What do y'all think?
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  • Reply 29 of 55
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orlando View Post


    Windows is a generic word but it is unique in being used to describe an operating system. You don't say "Windows" to refer in general to GUIs or Operating Systems. If you say "Windows" everyone knows you are talking about the Microsoft product.



    However, people use AppStore very generically to describe all of the different app stores. Say AppStore and people might think you are talking about Apple, Google, Microsoft etc. I find most people say iOS or iPhone AppStore so others know they are talking about the Apple one.





    No windows is also not unique, but because nobody else except for Microsoft was allowed to use it, it looks like to be unique. They same will go for Apple. If MS has the right to use windows and Office, so the Apple and any other company have the right to use such words.
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  • Reply 30 of 55
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Apple seems to like generic names for their products, but if worse comes to worst they could just name it iApp Store and people would know it was them.
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  • Reply 31 of 55
    pxtpxt Posts: 683member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by frugality View Post


    This is a window:



    ...



    The fact that MS used that term to refer to a rectangular box on a computer screen is a unique use of the word.



    Didn't the use of the term windows, as in WIMPs ( windows, icons, menus, pointers ) precede Windows the OS?
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  • Reply 32 of 55
    pxtpxt Posts: 683member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by linke.account View Post


    No windows is also not unique, but because nobody else except for Microsoft was allowed to use it, it looks like to be unique. They same will go for Apple. If MS has the right to use windows and Office, so the Apple and any other company have the right to use such words.



    Isn't the key difference that an OS is not a computer window and and productivity software is not an office, but the app store *is* an app store ?
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  • Reply 33 of 55
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PXT View Post


    Isn't the key difference that an OS is not a computer window and and productivity software is not an office, but the app store *is* an app store ?



    You tell me what do I mean by this sentence: "I love using windows". How would you interpret it?? Can you guess what I mean by windows? Do I mean "Windows" as an OS or I mean windows as GUI ??? As I said before: Because MS was the only Inc. who was allowed to use that term it is now "clear" for you that when someone says windows he means it most probably Windows as an OS. But what if the other were also allowed to use that term?? And there is also another point before that Apple announced App Store, who did use the word "App." for programs?? Nearly nobody and no company. So why now everybody are dying to use the term App. instead of programs?? Or they don't even use the word "Application"??? What is so special about the word "App."?? I'll tell you because it is the way Apple does marketing. They rebrand many things. And what do other companies do?? They try to imitate the way Apple moves and that's where the problem rises.
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  • Reply 34 of 55
    ranreloadedranreloaded Posts: 397member
    Off topic(?), I believe a guy called "GATES" selling a product called "WINDOWS" is pretty lame
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  • Reply 35 of 55
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    Amazon App Shop. Microsoft Market. Apple App Store.



    Problem solved.
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  • Reply 36 of 55
    bullheadbullhead Posts: 493member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by frugality View Post


    This is a window:







    The fact that MS used that term to refer to a rectangular box on a computer screen is a unique use of the word.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X Windows - 1984

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows Microsoft Windows - 1985



    So, yes, Windows is a generic term, copied from someone else, as pretty much everything Microsoft does.
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  • Reply 37 of 55
    gotwakegotwake Posts: 115member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orlando View Post


    Windows is a generic word but it is unique in being used to describe an operating system. You don't say "Windows" to refer in general to GUIs or Operating Systems. If you say "Windows" everyone knows you are talking about the Microsoft product.



    However, people use AppStore very generically to describe all of the different app stores. Say AppStore and people might think you are talking about Apple, Google, Microsoft etc. I find most people say iOS or iPhone AppStore so others know they are talking about the Apple one.



    Weakest argument I have ever heard. Outside of people that follow this type of stuff, "most people" don't have a clue about 'iOS'. They know the terms iPhone, Touch, iPad and App Store. So, it's no more generic than 'Windows' or 'Office'.
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  • Reply 38 of 55
    ...corporate competition strategy. It is in the best interests of those companies challenging Apple's trademarking of App Store to do so. If they didn't, Apple would get to use a short, pithy and instantly recognizable term for an application purchase and delivery point, to the exclusion of others.



    They all recognize that Apple is leading the pack in the mobile space, and will do whatever they can to create issues for Apple. Again, this is a strategic move by these companies, Apple is simply required to demonstrate the uniqueness and propriety of the term under trademark requirements. If they can to the satisfaction of the Trademark offices - it will be theirs in spite of the objections.



    I doubt any of us has done a material search in the trademark library to see what decisions support or contradict to make the determination. As in so much that is tied to government, these things do not stand or fall based on what we recognize as common sense.
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  • Reply 39 of 55
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Orlando View Post


    However, people use AppStore very generically to describe all of the different app stores.



    No self-respecting Android user would ever refer to the Marketplace as an App Store.
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  • Reply 40 of 55
    The reason MS and all the others want to use the term "AppStore" that Apple invented is just because it solely refers to the Apple's very successful AppStore for all things iOS, iPad, iPodTouch, iPhone.



    Like MS's and others' phone and tablet, which must copy everything Apple in order to compete at all (or they have no idea how to create similar products with more value than Apple's products), these companies cannot compete with Apple's AppStore unless they copy the same functionality and use the same name, in addition to trying ride Apple's coattails, wants to decrease the value of Apple "AppStore" term.
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