Apple Denied App Store Trademark In Australia

Apple has been fighting to trademark the App Store name in Australia for a while now. The electronics firm lost the original case to trademark App Store last March and Apple filed an appeal with the court. Apple has now lost that appeal in Australia as the Register of Trade Marks in that country has denied Apple again.

The court's ruling in both cases was that the term was too generic to qualify for trademark protection. The justice overseeing the appeal case for Apple ruled this week that Apple's case be dismissed and that Apple pay court costs for the Registrar of Trade Marks.

Apple will be able to continue to use the App Store name in the country, the loss of the appeal means that Apple will not be able to keep other firms from using App Store in advertising their own stores. Court costs for Apple in the case are expected to be somewhere in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Apple does own a trademark for "Appstore" with no space between the words in Australia. The trademark on that term will allow Apple to ensure no other companies use the name. The judge felt that Apple hadn't established that "App Store" designated services as being from Apple.

SOURCE: SMH