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
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382968,00.asp
https://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/03/trademark
Apple v Microsoft
https://www.itnews.com.au/News/249911,apple-hits-back-in-app-store-trademark-row.aspx
https://www.techeye.net/business/apple-and-microsoft-hire-cunning-linguists-over-app-store
Apple v Amazon
https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/21/apple-sues-amazon-for-app-store-trademark-infringement/
Linguists are getting involved
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-and-apple-hire-linguists-to-dispute-app-store-claim/https://socialbarrel.com/apple-and-microsoft-%E2%80%9Capp-store%E2%80%9D-war-becomes-battle-between-linguists/5586/
https://www.techeye.net/business/apple-and-microsoft-hire-cunning-linguists-over-app-store
Apple sure has a lot of trademarks
https://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html
“App” is 2010 ADS Word of the Year
https://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/app_voted_2010_word_of_the_year_by_the_american_dialect_society/
About genericide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademarkhttps://www.dailywritingtips.com/are-you-guilty-of-genericide/
https://www.rinkworks.com/words/eponyms.shtml
Courts are turning to linguists for an increasing number of cases
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/the-corpus-in-the-court-like-lexis-on-steroids/72054/%20
