Microsoft and Nokia latest to challenge ‘app store’ trademark

Microsoft and Nokia are the latest companies to challenge Apple’s EU-wide trademarks for the terms ‘appstore’ and ‘app store’. Sony Ericson and HTC have also filed requests to invalidate Apple’s trademark rights with the EU trademark agency, in Spain.
All four companies believe the trademarks should not have been granted because, as Microsoft has stated, they “both lack distinctiveness”.
Apple currently enjoys three-quarters of the entire, global mobile app market. Its App Store has over 350,000 apps for its various iOS devices and it will earn at least $2.9 billion from app sales in 2011, up 63% from last year’s earnings.*
Sales of apps from stores and sites owned by Apple, Google, Nokia and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) will rise by 78% this year from $2.1 billion last year. The huge increase is due to the rise of the smart phone and tablet computer markets.
The ‘war’ over whether Apple can indeed trademark the term ‘app store’ is likely to be a lengthy one. Any decision by the EU trademark agency’s cancellation division can be appealed – with any final appeals being brought to the EU’s two highest courts.