Apple sue Amazon for claims of false advertising

We reckon Apple and Amazon executives won't be exchanging Christmas cards this year. The latest news is that Apple are adding another claim to their current lawsuit – false advertising. Apple are already taking legal action against Amazon for the user of the term of ‘App Store' which they claim is their own.

You can read the updated complaint over here. This was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California and alleges that since Amazon announced their new Kindle Fire tablet they have changed their ‘Amazon Appstore for Android' to underemphasise the ‘for Android' section of the title.

Apple claim “Amazon's use is also likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple's App Store service and Apple products designed to utilize Apple's App Store service by associating Apple's App Store service with the inferior qualities of Amazon's service.”

They are protective of their ‘App Store' term, claiming “Apple, long renowned for its innovation and product design, introduced the APP STORE service and coined the APP STORE mark three years ago. In that short period of time, the service has experienced phenomenal growth and success, and the service is now available on over 250 million devices worldwide and over 18 billion software programs have been downloaded by users.”

This is the latest in an ongoing battle between Apple and Amazon. Amazon have counter sued Apple saying that the term ‘App Store' is too generic to protect and have requested that Apple's case is dismissed. A judge has denied Apples injunction against Amazon, although she did not agree that the term ‘App Store' is purely generic.

Some sources are saying that Apple are concerned with the launch of the new Amazon Kindle, especially with such a strong store infrastructure already in place. The price of $199 is much lower than the iPad's current $499 and could target an audience who can't afford the Apple tablet.

Kitguru says: Many claim that this will be the first serious challenge to Apple in the tablet sector.

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