Apple (AAPL) Defends 'App Store' Trademark Attempt, Says Microsoft (MSFT) Clueless

With nemesis Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) attempting to stop the attempt by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to trademark the term "App Store," it has resulted in a new filing by Apple and the usual war of words between the two corporate enemies.

Apple asked in a Monday filing that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to dismiss Microsoft's attempt to stop Apple's "App Store" trademark application.

The tech giant said in its filing: "Having itself faced a decades-long genericness challenge to its claimed WINDOWS mark, Microsoft should be well aware that the focus in evaluating genericness is on the mark as a whole and requires a fact-intensive assessment of the primary significance of the term to a substantial majority of the relevant public. Yet, Microsoft, missing the forest for the trees, does not base its motion on a comprehensive evaluation of how the relevant public understands the term APP STORE as a whole."

Microsoft has asserted in a previous filing that "secondary meaning or fame Apple has in 'App Store' is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term 'app store' into a protectable trademark."

The case will be decided by the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which will make a decision on whether to allow Microsoft's motion for summary judgment against Apple's application, or allow the case to go to trial.




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