Apple vs Amazon: App Store & Appstore to Continue to Coexist? [Judge Indicates It Would Likely Side With Amazon When It Comes to “App Store” Usage]

Posted on TFTS by Chris Smith on Thursday, 23. June 2011 under: Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

Apple has plenty of legal battles all going on at the same time right now, and, after we focused on its legal conflict with Samsung in the past few days, it’s time to check out an equally interesting court fight related to Apple’s and Amazon’s app store names.

Apple sued Amazon a while back as the former wasn’t very pleased with the latter’s choice of words when it comes to that new Appstore Android application store Amazon launched back in March.

Apple currently runs one of the most successful app stores out there, and you already know it by name by now, the App Store. It’s only natural for Cupertino to be annoyed at Amazon for deciding to go with the same name even though we’re talking about an Appstore (no space between the words) in Amazon’s case, and an application store that only sells Android apps.

But it looks like Cupertino will lose this battle as U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton would rather side with Amazon on this one. Apparently the “App Store” term is indeed too generic and Apple is yet to prove that Amazon’s “Appstore” is causing any confusion for customers, or that it would affect, in any way, Cupertino’s reputation. Of course this isn’t the final verdict and things could change in the following days as the judge, even if she claimed it’s less likely to rule in favor of Apple, still has to go through the court fillings before a final decision can be made.

No matter how the judge rules, the side that wins will get a significant victory. Either Apple would further strengthen its App Store product and prevent other competitors for trying to use any “App” + “Store” combination in the future while Amazon would have to change its app store name or Amazon would win and thus continue to use the “Appstore” term which chould encourage other companies to come up with application stores similarly named to Apple’s “App Store.”

What say you, Apple and Amazon customers, which side would you rather take?