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So, if you have a store that sells apps, what does Apple expect you to call it? Software Shop? Algorithm Emporium? If "app store" can be trademarked, surely th

So, if you have a store that sells apps, what does Apple expect you to call it? Software Shop? Algorithm Emporium? If "app store" can be trademarked, surely there must be an alternative that sounds equally or more generic.

moondowner 15y ago
Therefore, "app store" shouldn't be trademarked, because there isn't 'an alternative that sounds equally or more generic'.
Typhon 15y ago
How about "Apstor" ? I bet nobody trademarked it yet.
vog 15y ago
Maybe it's not so much the term app store but the term app that Apple kind of "registered". Of course, app is just an abbreviation for application, but this term is currently used almost exclusively for applications on Apple platforms.
- extension 15y ago
  I dunno, "web app" has been common lingo for over a decade. You just don't hear it much anymore because it's lost its buzzword status. Interestingly, the first Google hit for "web app" is some sort of Apple store. A preemptive strike?
  - edanm 15y ago
    Actually, I doubt most people know what a "web app" is. Have you ever tried to explain the difference between a Web Site and a Web App to someone non-technical? Apps, on the other hand, are definitely understood to be mobile applications. Can't say whether it's tied specifically to Apple or not though. That's not to say I agree with App Store being trademarked - it's pretty ridiculous, IMO.
sigzero 15y ago
Please..."Windows" was trademarked and that is a much more generic term than "App Store". Reality plays no part in this.
- extension 15y ago
  It wasn't trademarked by a company that sells windows.
  - nailer 15y ago
    It was trademarked by a company that sells lls a windowing owing system.
    - Steko 15y ago
      App store is trying to be trademarked by a company that has an App Store?
    - nailer 15y ago
      Pardon the obvious software error, but could people please not downmod a well known fact? Microsift sells a windowing system.
- Symmetry 15y ago
  You're confused here. Trademarks dont' apply globally like patents or copyrights, they only apply within contexts where there is likely to be consumer confusion. Microsoft can have "Windows" brand operating systems. I could create a chain of "Windows" restaurants. A company that sells windows absolutely could not create a "Windows" trademark and expect it to have any legal force.
flyosity 15y ago
The phrase App Store was not in use before Apple's App Store was created. Take a look at Google Trends from the past few years. Nobody talked about it until Apple used the term, now, it's used like people saying Kleenex when they could have just said tissue. Apple wasn't the first to have a centralized location where users could download software. If they called it the Apple Software Center I bet everyone would be calling their software centers Software Centers and we'd be having the same argument.
- watty 15y ago
  I think if the word "app" is proven to be generic with prior use, "app store" shouldn't be able to be trademarked. "Kleenex" is a unique word with no meaning prior to Kleenex, not so of an "app store", completely different case.
  - Symmetry 15y ago
    Whats worse for Apple, "Kleenex" was so dominant at one point that it came close to being Genericized [1]. If the public doesn't think of a word as referring to a specific product but instead they think of "Kleenex" as a name for all soft facial tissues then in the US at least the "Kleenex" trade mark can lose its legal force. It might be that Apple invented the term "App Store", but as long as members of the public would tend to refer to application repositories from Google or Amazon by the same term, even without Google or Amazon using it, then "App Store" isn't serving a useful purpose as a trademark and doesn't have the same legal force as a word that was in practice only specific to Apple. I, personally, love the fact that the law around trademarks corresponds so well to their purpose - preventing consumers from being confused. This is one of the reasons I don't like the term "intellectual property", it takes three things that are very different legally and lumps them together in a way that sometimes causes people to think that the rules governing one apply to others, or that the attitudes they have towards one form should apply to all of them. Personally I'm pretty ambivalent about whether we ought to have patents and copyrights at all - but I think that trademarks are awesome and we'd be much worse off without them. EDIT: Oops, forgot to put in the reference: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark
benologist 15y ago
Application store!

moondowner 15y ago

Therefore, "app store" shouldn't be trademarked, because there isn't 'an alternative that sounds equally or more generic'.

Typhon 15y ago

How about "Apstor" ? I bet nobody trademarked it yet.

vog 15y ago

Maybe it's not so much the term app store but the term app that Apple kind of "registered". Of course, app is just an abbreviation for application, but this term is currently used almost exclusively for applications on Apple platforms.

extension 15y ago
I dunno, "web app" has been common lingo for over a decade. You just don't hear it much anymore because it's lost its buzzword status. Interestingly, the first Google hit for "web app" is some sort of Apple store. A preemptive strike?
- edanm 15y ago
  Actually, I doubt most people know what a "web app" is. Have you ever tried to explain the difference between a Web Site and a Web App to someone non-technical? Apps, on the other hand, are definitely understood to be mobile applications. Can't say whether it's tied specifically to Apple or not though. That's not to say I agree with App Store being trademarked - it's pretty ridiculous, IMO.

sigzero 15y ago

Please..."Windows" was trademarked and that is a much more generic term than "App Store". Reality plays no part in this.

extension 15y ago
It wasn't trademarked by a company that sells windows.
- nailer 15y ago
  It was trademarked by a company that sells lls a windowing owing system.
  - Steko 15y ago
    App store is trying to be trademarked by a company that has an App Store?
  - nailer 15y ago
    Pardon the obvious software error, but could people please not downmod a well known fact? Microsift sells a windowing system.
Symmetry 15y ago
You're confused here. Trademarks dont' apply globally like patents or copyrights, they only apply within contexts where there is likely to be consumer confusion. Microsoft can have "Windows" brand operating systems. I could create a chain of "Windows" restaurants. A company that sells windows absolutely could not create a "Windows" trademark and expect it to have any legal force.

flyosity 15y ago

The phrase App Store was not in use before Apple's App Store was created. Take a look at Google Trends from the past few years. Nobody talked about it until Apple used the term, now, it's used like people saying Kleenex when they could have just said tissue. Apple wasn't the first to have a centralized location where users could download software. If they called it the Apple Software Center I bet everyone would be calling their software centers Software Centers and we'd be having the same argument.

watty 15y ago
I think if the word "app" is proven to be generic with prior use, "app store" shouldn't be able to be trademarked. "Kleenex" is a unique word with no meaning prior to Kleenex, not so of an "app store", completely different case.
- Symmetry 15y ago
  Whats worse for Apple, "Kleenex" was so dominant at one point that it came close to being Genericized [1]. If the public doesn't think of a word as referring to a specific product but instead they think of "Kleenex" as a name for all soft facial tissues then in the US at least the "Kleenex" trade mark can lose its legal force. It might be that Apple invented the term "App Store", but as long as members of the public would tend to refer to application repositories from Google or Amazon by the same term, even without Google or Amazon using it, then "App Store" isn't serving a useful purpose as a trademark and doesn't have the same legal force as a word that was in practice only specific to Apple. I, personally, love the fact that the law around trademarks corresponds so well to their purpose - preventing consumers from being confused. This is one of the reasons I don't like the term "intellectual property", it takes three things that are very different legally and lumps them together in a way that sometimes causes people to think that the rules governing one apply to others, or that the attitudes they have towards one form should apply to all of them. Personally I'm pretty ambivalent about whether we ought to have patents and copyrights at all - but I think that trademarks are awesome and we'd be much worse off without them. EDIT: Oops, forgot to put in the reference: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

benologist 15y ago

Application store!