Microsoft Wants the App Store Name As Well

As we can see from the App Store badge on the right, the name “App Store” already has such a ring to it, so elegant and simplistic and it can be used in regular conversations so naturally, such as “Have you checked out the app store today?” or “I wonder what’s featured in the app store today?” and immediately your mind would go to Apple’s App Store.

Ask any other platform user whether it be Blackberry, Nokia or Android – the minute the two words “App Store” is spoken they think Apple. It is because it has such a simplistic feeling to it and such a ring that Microsoft decided that it’s not fair that Apple gets to trademark it. They have already begun the campaign to release the “App Store” term from Apple’s trademark but now it looks like they’re attempting the campaign in Europe as well when Microsoft went ahead and filed a formal application for declaration of invalidity with the European Union’s Community Trade Mark office over Apple’s trademark.

Microsoft’s argument is that the term “App Store” is too generic and lacks distinctiveness which could simply mean a store that is offering apps, something that Windows Phone 7 is doing, Blackberry is doing, Android is doing and Nokia is doing as well. If Microsoft were to succeed in challenging Apple’s trademark and Apple was forced to rename their app store, if you were an iOS user, do you think you could ever stop using the term “App Store” even if it was changed to, let’s just say –  “Apple’s Amazing and Wonderful Emporium of Apps”?