Apple has registered the “App Store” trademark a few years back, preventing other companies to sell apps (software destined to be used on mobile phones) through a store (a marketplace, a means of selling) called “App Store” in the future. Apple tried to register the same trademark in Australia as well since 2008, but the local Registrar of Trademarks did not accept the application, The Register reports, as the name it did not distinguish the applicant on its own”.
Apple, of course, was not happy with the authority’s decision taken last year, and appealed. Now the time has come for the Australian Federal Court to rule – and the ruling was not in Apple’s favor. Here is the conclusion of Australian Federal Court judge Justice Yates on the matter:
Apple has not established that, because of the extent to which it has used the mark before the filing date, it does distinguish the designated services as being Apple’s services. It follows that APP STORE must be taken as not being capable of distinguishing the designated services as Apple’s services.
Apple’s arguments for the registering of the “App Store” name as a trademark were that the use of “app store” has soared significantly after the manufacturer launched its own, leading to the interest of other traders to benefit of this interest by adopting the same name for their app stores. Its rivals, Apple argued, used distinguishable names for their own app stores, like Google Play Store and Windows Phone Store, for example.
Speaking of Microsoft – the ruling has revealed that the Redmond Giant has opposed Apple’s application for the “App Store” trademark in the United States, and the evidence of this opposition has reached the registrant through solicitors acting on behalf of Microsoft Corporation in Australia. Not that not using the App Store as a trademark would hurt Apple’s sales in Australia – the record show that the company sold over $6 billion worth of apps through its software store.