Court Dismisses Apple’s Claim That Amazon’s “Appstore” Is Deceptive

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Apple launched a temper-tantrum when Amazon decided to title their marketplace for mobiles app as the “Appstore.” Apple was there first and they started using “The App Store” way before anyone else, so they told the United States district court that Amazon is trying to mislead customers.

Not everyone sees things Apple’s way though and the U.S. district court has dismissed Apple’s claims that the Amazon Appstore is false advertising and deceives customers.

Apple’s argument was that the Amazon Appstore name was too similar to Apple’s App Store and that customers would think that Amazon’s app marketplace is affiliated with Apple because they’ve been using “App Store” for years now.

The court agreed with Amazon that the mere use of “Appstore” cannot be construed as a representation that the nature, characteristics or quality of the Amazon Appstore is the same as that of the Apple App Store. The court also found that Apple failed to show that Amazon deceived users of the Appstore for Android.

Even though the court ruled in Amazon’s favor over the Appstore, there are 5 more parts of the case to be ruled on, and the false advertising claim has no bearing on whether or not the Appstore for Android constitutes trademark infringement.

Source: The Verge

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