Apple has apps. It even has an App Store.
But now Microsoft has challenged Apple’s attempt to trademark “App Store”, and Amazon wants to have its own Appstore. Is that allowed? Companies get to trademark words and terms they invent, but what happens when those words enter the public lexicon?
Linguist Daniel Midgley gets proprietary on this week’s Talk the Talk.
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Microsoft v Apple
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382968,00.asp
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/03/trademark
Apple v Microsoft
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/249911,apple-hits-back-in-app-store-trademark-row.aspx
http://www.techeye.net/business/apple-and-microsoft-hire-cunning-linguists-over-app-store
Apple v Amazon
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/21/apple-sues-amazon-for-app-store-trademark-infringement/
Linguists are getting involved
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-and-apple-hire-linguists-to-dispute-app-store-claim/http://socialbarrel.com/apple-and-microsoft-%E2%80%9Capp-store%E2%80%9D-war-becomes-battle-between-linguists/5586/
http://www.techeye.net/business/apple-and-microsoft-hire-cunning-linguists-over-app-store
Apple sure has a lot of trademarks
http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html
“App” is 2010 ADS Word of the Year
http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/app_voted_2010_word_of_the_year_by_the_american_dialect_society/
About genericide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademarkhttp://www.dailywritingtips.com/are-you-guilty-of-genericide/
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/eponyms.shtml
Courts are turning to linguists for an increasing number of cases
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/the-corpus-in-the-court-like-lexis-on-steroids/72054/%20
