Apple has failed in its attempt to register "APP
STORE" as a trade mark, after the Federal Court rejected its
appeal.
What did Apple say?
Apple argued that when it originally filed the trade mark
application in 2008, "APP STORE" was not a common English
expression and therefore nobody else would have thought to use it
at that stage. Apple also argued that it had been using "APP
STORE" prior to the filing date, so as at 2008 the expression
distinguished Apple's services and no one else's.
What did the Court say?
In short, the Court said nah-ah.
The Court said the public would have understood "APP
STORE" as no more than an expression to describe a store by or
through which application software could be acquired and that other
traders would have wished to use the words "APP STORE" in
some form to describe the same trade channel and activity.
