Microsoft objects to App Store trademark request

Sometimes product names are too generic to be trademarked and other times the competition just whines about trademarks because they intend on using the popular phrase themselves.

Microsoft has officially opposed Apple’s attempts to trademark the term ‘App Store.’ Microsoft has filed a complaint and claims that the term ‘app store’ is “generic for retail store services featuring apps and unregistrable for ancillary services such as searching for and downloading apps from such stores.”

I don’t disagree with Microsoft, but let’s be real here. How many people throw up the term ‘App Store’ when trying to describe the Android Market Place, App World, and other mobile marketplaces? The term App Store is almost unilaterally used to refer to Apple’s application market, and when used by others, it’s used as a way to compare, contrast, or further explain their own application bazaars.

What do you think? Is Microsoft right to be opposing the trademark request from Apple, or is it a lame excuse to throw an elbow into the ribs of the competition?

Article Via CNET
Photo Credit: CrunchGear

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.