App-palling, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #120
March 22, 2011 Arthur Tebbel 5 Comments
Dear Art,
This week my company filed suit against Amazon for infringing on our trademark for the term “App Store” when they launched the Amazon App Store. The Amazon App Store is a mobile-software development program for programs on the Android platform. We feel this is a flagrant violation but Amazon (and Microsoft in a different case) have argued that the term is a generic term. Art, you have a prodigious legal mind, what do you think of our case here?
-Kristin Huguet, Spokeswoman, Apple Inc.
Kristin,
I’m really glad that the delicatessen wasn’t invented in my lifetime. Because one place would be called a deli and every other sandwich selling shop on the planet would have to be called something else and conversations would be needlessly confusing. This has got to be the same thing right? You didn’t invent the application; you didn’t invent monetizing software. You just coined a term for selling software for phones (something else you did not invent). I don’t even think you invented the shorthand “app,” that probably goes to someone at T.G.I. Fridays.
The weird thing here is you guys have the far superior product. I have never looked at an Android phone with envy and that’s because the iPhone has a really great user interface. The unified platform means you get apps quicker. Last I heard Android still didn’t have Netflix, why would I even want to live in that kind of a world? No reasonable person is going to see Amazon’s app store and think it’s yours. Well no reasonable smartphone customer. This could cripple your brand image among people too old or stupid to properly use your products anyway. In fact, by confusing and scaring those people away you’ll raise the average level of savvy of your users thus making the product look more hip. You should probably start investing heavily in companies making inferior app stores for Android. I know nothing about software and would be perfect for this venture. Please send checks made out to Art Tebbel.
In the end I feel you’re just being shortsighted. Right now you could have the far and away industry leading app store. Or you could have an app store while the rest of the industry agrees on another term and leaves you on the outside looking in. The term isn’t even really that clever. Get over it, let some other people into your pool and maybe we can see about you guys ditching that whole “doesn’t play nice with others” corporate image you’ve developed.
MOTU
March 23, 2011 - 12:02 pm
Good points-I’m writing about Apple on Friday, you have given me some more food for thought.
Vinnie Bartilucci
March 24, 2011 - 11:52 am
This isn’t a “Delicatessen” scenario, it’s a “Mace” or “Xerox” scenario.
Apple has a trademarked brand name, like both of those examples are trademarked names for teargas and copiers, respectively. If a name gets used generically long enough, the company loses the rights to sell under that brand name. “Aspirin” used to be a brand name, owned by Bayer. But it became a generic, and now anyone can sell aspirin, lower case. Kleenex and Band-Aid are endlessly trying to hold onto those names by getting people not to use them as a generic. It’s why, back in the day, the jingle “I am stuck on Band-Aid, cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me” became “I am stuck on Band-Aid BRAND…” – they had to toss the bit of legality in there.
So yeah, Apple is notorious for protecting itself, but in this case it’s not unreasonable. They coulda/shoulda gone with a cease & desist letter to Amazon first; perhaps they did and I haven’t heard that bit. But Amazon hd to know they were taking a risk with the name, they simply hoped calling it “The Amazon App Store” would be enough. Heck, even Android calls their shop “The Android Market”, a name that got my heart racing until I realized they were only selling apps. But I Digress.
I’m using an Android phone (The Ally, the one Iron Man has), but I may indeed jump to an iPhone when the new one comes out. But I look at my perfectly good iPod Touch and realize I have almost all the functionality of a iPhone save for making calls, and wonder if I REALLY need to jump.
Jonathan (the other one)
March 24, 2011 - 2:46 pm
By that logic, then, Vinnie, IBM should have sued Apple long since – at least, the first time I heard the phrase “killer app” was in relation to IBM’s use of MS-DOS on their home computers.
“App” has been shorthand for “application” for a long time – Apple just found a cute little bit of wordplay and ran with it, and now hopes their lawyers can help them strangle competing smartphone OSes in their cradles.
Vinnie Bartilucci
March 25, 2011 - 1:55 pm
Not used as a sales slogan, never trademarked. Not a fair comparison.
And as far as I know, they’re not suing over the word “App” but the phrase “App Store”. They applied for copyright protection, and several companies are challenging it, but odds are they’ll lose.
The words “Super” and “Man” existed before too.
John Tebbel
March 26, 2011 - 8:16 am
First fan letter I ever got as a journalist was from the Coca Cola company informing me I was incorrect, illegal and other stuff for referring to a “coke machine.” I blame the copydesk.