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Apple Sues Amazon Over ‘App Store’ Name Right Before Amazon’s Is Supposed To Launch

Dan Frommer | Business Insider

Apple is suing Amazon to try and get it to stop using the term “app store” to describe its new app store for Google Android phones, which is supposed to launch Tuesday.

Via the WSJ, in a federal complaint filed last Friday in the Northern District of California, Apple asked for an injunction preventing Amazon from using the “app store” name, plus unspecified damages. Amazon spells it “Appstore,” but Apple apparently thinks that’s close enough.

“Consumers of mobile software downloads are likely to be confused as to whether Amazon’s mobile software download service is sponsored or approved by Apple,” Apple said in its complaint, via the WSJ.

Given the relationship between the companies — increasingly competitive, but Amazon sells a lot of Apple products, and Apple has licensed its “one click” e-commerce technology — you’d have to assume something like this went all the way to the top at both companies.

To be a fly on the wall during that conversation between Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos…

Anyway, if Amazon does have to stop using the “app store” name, what will it choose? RIM uses “App World” for the BlackBerry, Palm uses “App Catalog” for webOS, Google uses “Market” for Android, and so on. Or will Apple and Amazon figure this out without a judge?

And how does this affect other negotiations the companies may be having, such as whether Apple is really going to try to tax Amazon 30% for Kindle e-books sold through Amazon’s iOS apps?

Read: The 10 Biggest Questions About Apple’s iPhone 5
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The original version of the story appears here: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-amazon-app-store-2011-3

Business Insider is a new business site with deep financial, entertainment, green tech and digital industry verticals. The flagship vertical, Silicon Alley Insider, launched on July 19, 2007, led by DoubleClick founders Dwight Merriman and Kevin Ryan and former top-ranked Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget.