Commons Law
Andrew Katz
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Andrew Katz is partner and head of the IT/IP team at Moorcrofts LLP, a boutique law firm based in the Thames Valley providing corporate and commercial advice to knowledge-based industries. Andrew qualified as a barrister and requalified (and now practises) as a solicitor. He financed his way through bar school by jobbing as a (fairly incompetent) programmer (in turbo pascal). He now specialises in free and open source software law and has written and lectured widely. He is a founder editor of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review, a fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe and advises businesses and communities on free and open source licensing and strategy worldwide. He is slightly obsessive about live music. These are his opinions, and not those of his firm.
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Linked-in ProfileRegistering "App Store" as a trade mark
Microsoft does the right thing
Published 14:11, 19 January 11
It's always nice to be able to report that Microsoft is doing the right thing, and in this case, everyone's favourite abuser-of-a-dominant-position seems to be. It's been reported that Microsoft is objecting to Apple's attempts to register "App Store" as a registered trade mark in the US.
Microsoft's argument is that "app" is a common abbreviation for the English word "application", and that "store" means, well, store. Stringing them together doesn't make them any more distinctive. And I can't argue with that. (As a rule, it's not supposed to be possible to register a trade marks that monopolises pre-existing language).
Interestingly, "App Store" has already been registered in the EU for some time (something the BBC could have discovered in less than two minutes of online searching - see here)), suggesting that the original story was fed to them somehow.
There's no indication on the OHIM website (the registry for Community Trade Marks) that there has been any objection to the registration in the EU. Which is a pity. I'd be interested in hearing from a trade mark agent, or someone who can drive the OHIM website better than me, whether there are any similar proceedings in the EU.
"App" has been short for "application" for donkey's years: see here for example: a usenet posting from 1989 which uses the term "killer app" in several places.
Businesses abuse the trade mark system by treating it as a sort of land-grab. You may recall the Futurama gag that that "Popplers" was one of only two possible trademarks remaining available (the other being "Zitzlers").
I'd like to be able to report that as life parodies art, Warner Brothers had trademarked popplers. Sadly, they haven't. However, they have registered a trademark for Slurm .
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