Apple’s injunction request against Amazon to axe the company’s use of the term ‘app store’ has been denied. The Amazon Appstore for Android lives on, ready and willing to offer free daily apps at will. As the dust begins to settle following the ruling by the US federal judge, how will this impact Apple and more importantly: does it matter?
Apple has rightfully pioneered the modern application library through its App Store. With more than 300,000 apps available and an endless slue of developers chomping at the bit for a chance to strike gold, apps and Apple have almost become synonymous. As I’ve followed the mobile industry for the past five years, today’s ruling by Judge Phyllis Hamilton is quite surprising.
The judge said, “Apple has not established that its ‘App Store‘ mark is famous, in the sense of being prominent and renowned.” These are strong claims considering Apple App Store downloads surpassed the 15 billion mark this week. Prior to the Apple App Store, downloading applications on smartphones required dealing direct with individual developers. Centralizing and curating applications was Apple’s claim to fame as far as I’m concerned.
Shortly after realizing Apple’s success, the entire mobile industry followed suit — BlackBerry launched the BlackBerry App World, Android launched the Android Market and Windows launched Windows Marketplace. None of these stores would exist had Apple not shown the millions (possibly billions) in profits that could be made by centralizing applications for a platform.
I’m not suggesting that Apple should be allowed to coin the phrase ‘App Store’, but such blatant disregard for the App Store’s impact by Judge Phyllis Hamilton is unsettling. Laws aside, Apple spends a tremendous amount of money marketing its products through catchy television adverts each month — a large percentage are focused on its apps. Judge Phyllis Hamilton and I agree on this point, “the evidence does show that Apple has spent a great deal of money on advertising and publicity.”
At the end of the day the denial of Apple’s injunction request against Amazon will not make or break the company. Amazon will benefit from the name, the same way all Android phones benefit from Verizon’s ‘Droid’ marketing campaign. The difference is that Apple will continue to attract developers to its platform first. The 90,000 apps for iPad and more than 200,000 apps for iPhone and iPod Touch will differentiate the App Store names.
