Popularizing a term does not automatically mean you can trademark it. Purely descriptive language like "app store" generally cannot be trademarked unless it has

Popularizing a term does not automatically mean you can trademark it. Purely descriptive language like "app store" generally cannot be trademarked unless it has "acquired distinctiveness" through use in trade. Apple has to show that people think "app store" means Apple's app store. How many people have to think that, and how technically inclined those people have to be, I don't know. The reaction to this story shows at least that the tech community does not think that. I don't know how trademark law deals with large rifts in public perception. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_distinctiveness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_distinctiveness