

Amazon responds to Apple: "app store" is generic, drop the suit - grellas
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/04/amazon-responds-to-apple-app-store-is-generic-toss-the-suit.ars

======
grellas
My comments as posted last month when Apple first filed this suit are here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2352076> (analyzing the pertinent
trademark issues in some detail).

~~~
neuroelectronic
An argument that I'm surprised nobody has realized is the fact that "killer
app" was in general parlance way before the iPhone was released (at least a
decade). This is killer evidence that app was a generic term way back when
Apple was struggling to sell plastic purses.

------
stevenj
IMO, so is "1-Click".

~~~
cooldeal
Is Amazon suing anyone for saying something like "I did it in one click" ?

~~~
stevenj
Not that I know of.

But if I remember correctly, it wouldn't/doesn't let anyone use "1-Click" for
ecommerce checkout buttons without licensing it. And I think it even tried to
prohibit others from enabling a one-step checkout process. In other words,
retailers had to at least have a two-step checkout process.

That's just bad for the end-user.

~~~
chc
That's a patent, not a trademark (well, I mean, they might have a trademark
too since Amazon owns the whole idea, but it was the patent that got their
lawyers so heated up). Amazon patented the idea of buying the items in a
shopping cart with one click.

~~~
neuroelectronic
I'm pretty sure there is not a shopping cart involved. You just click the item
and it aggregates your shipments as necessary and automatically selects
destination and payment as configured by the user.

It's a business process which I thought were not patentable but it was
reaffirmed in 2007. It's set to expire in 2017 so in a few years whatever
advantage this patent gave Amazon will dissolve. Personally, I'm scared of all
the half-assed implementations that will no doubt mushroom all over the web at
that time.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click>

------
ignifero
It's fun to take a look at the history of the trademark application here:
[http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=7...](http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77525433)

It appears the first application was rejected (without a third party
objecting), following amendments went back and forth twice before amazon's
intervention. So much drama

------
foobarbazetc
Amazon calling their store the "app store" is confusing as hell, and is meant
to confuse your average user into believing it's the same thing as Apple's.

"App Store" is about as generic as "Amazon".

