Apple App Store in danger? HTC, Nokia in court
LUXEMBOURG: Microsoft Corp and Nokia Oyj are among four technology companies to challenge Apple Inc's European Union-wide trademarks for "Appstore" and "App Store."
Microsoft, Nokia, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB and HTC Corp all filed separate applications with the Alicante, Spain-based EU trademark agency seeking to invalidate Apple's trademark rights. A decision by the agency could be appealed several times, all the way up to the EU's top court in Luxembourg.
"Microsoft and other leading technology companies are seeking to invalidate Apple's trademark registration for 'APP STORE' and 'APPSTORE' because we believe that they should not have been granted because they both lack distinctiveness," the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement.
Amazon.com Inc on April 15 already filed an opposition to the two EU trademarks by Apple, according to documents on the website of OHIM, the EU trademark agency. The dispute over the validity of the Apple rights has also reached the US where Amazon.com, after being sued for trademark infringement by Apple, argued the intellectual property right was invalid.
Alan Hely, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, didn't immediately respond to voice mail or email messages seeking comment.
Mark Durrant, a spokesman for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, and Sony Ericsson spokeswoman Mandy Slater confirmed the companies sent objections to the trademark registration.
The phrase "means just what it says, a store for 'apps,' which in itself is a generic term for the services that the trademark registrations cover," Durrant said in an email.
Decisions by the OHIM cancellation division can be appealed to the agency's appeals board and later to the EU's two top courts based in Luxembourg.
(Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
