Apple has expanded its battle with Amazon over the term "app store" to include the retailer's newly released Kindle Fire tablet.
Though Amazon launched its store as the "Amazon AppStore for Android," Apple claims that Amazon has de-emphasized the "for Android" part in recent months, particularly around the Fire release.
"For example, when Amazon announced in late September 2011 that it would introduce a new hardware product named the Kindle Fire (the 'Fire'), Amazon promoted the Fire's ability to use Amazon's mobile software download service but omitted the 'for Android' phrase when using the APPSTORE mark," Apple said in a Wednesday filing with a California district court, a copy of which is available on PaidContent.org.
In 2008, Apple filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the mark "App Store." By January 2010, the PTO published a public notice, which provided those who objected to the mark a chance to have their say. Microsoft objected, kicking off a legal battle between the two companies. When Amazon launched its Amazon Android AppStore in March, meanwhile, Apple filed suit, demanding that Amazon stop using the term.
Both Microsoft and Amazon have argued that the term "app store" a generic one, and does not apply exclusively to Apple's App Store.
In July, a California district judge denied Cupertino's request for an injunction against Amazon's AppStore. Apple failed to establish that its "App Store" mark is famous enough to be considered prominent or renowned, the court found. Essentially, people automatically think of Apple when someone says iPad, iPhone, or iPod, but the same association is not necessarily made with "app store."
The $199, 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire, meanwhile, hit stores this week. Back in August, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps suggested that the Fire could be "the only credible iPad competitor in the market," but given the price differences between the Fire and the iPad, the $249 Nook Tablet is a more likely competitor.
For more, see PCMag's full reviews of the Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, and iPad 2, as well as our Amazon Kindle Fire vs. B&N Nook Tablet vs. Nook Color: Spec Showdown and the Fire slideshow below.