Apple and Amazon End 'Appstore' Lawsuit

[dgstorm]

Finally a little bit of reason prevailed within the Apple legal team. We can't blame you if you forgot all about this lawsuit, but way back in 2011 Apple sued Amazon for launching the Amazon Appstore. They claimed it was false and confusing advertising because Apple has the Apple App Store. Apparently, (only to Apple), these two names are so close to each other and so specific that Apple felt Amazon was trying to capitalize on the name in order to confuse customers into using the Amazon Appstore instead of Apple's App Store.

For the most part the world did a collective "facepalm" as the lunacy of this claim was apparent to any rational thinking person. Luckily, the Apple lawyers recently realized the futility of this lawsuit despite dragging it out for two years. The August 19th trial was slowly approaching and Apple decided to drop the case. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California summarily dismissed the case, averting the August 19th trial (and a huge waste of time and money). Here's a quote with some of the details,

"We no longer see a need to pursue our case," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. "With more than 900,000 apps and 50 billion downloads, customers know where they can purchase their favorite apps."

Martin Glick, a lawyer for Amazon, said in an interview, "This was a decision by Apple to unilaterally abandon the case, and leave Amazon free to use 'appstore.'"

"We're gratified that the court has conclusively dismissed this case," Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako said. "We look forward to continuing our focus on delivering the best possible appstore experience to customers and developers."

In its lawsuit alleging trademark violations and false advertising, Apple accused Amazon of misusing the "app store" name in connection with the sales of apps for Android devices and the Kindle Fire, a tablet that competes with Apple's iPad.

Amazon countered that the term "app store" had become so generic that using it would not mislead customers.

It said in a court filing that even Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook had used the term generically, in discussing "the number of app stores out there," while his predecessor Steve Jobs had talked about the "four app stores on Android."

Feel free to roll your eyes and sigh now if you feel the urge...

Source: Yahoo! Finance