the fight over "app store"

[Victor Steinbok]

One of the Economist blogs also linked to NYT and mentioned a few
interesting examples, such as the "Container Store". From my
perspective, there are subtle differences between "container store" and
"app store" that make Apple's job a bit harder. There is really only one
way to interpret "App Store" and that's a retail establishment that
sells apps--which is merely descriptive. "Container Store" has more
different angles and, in the end, the actual store sells more than just
containers. In this, the "App Store" is more like a "Book Store" and the
"Container Store" is more like a "Restaurant Store". The latter pair is
worthy a mark, the former--IMO--is not.

Of course, Ron Butters is an interested party so he may well stay mum on
this--wouldn't want to tip his hand, at this point.

     VS-)

On 3/30/2011 9:23 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 6:21 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>> This CNN piece on the feud between Apple and Amazon over "app store"
>> mentions the WOTY win for "app" and quotes a few ADS-ers: me, Wayne Glowka,
>> and Bill Kretzschmar (Bill, it should be remembered, nominated "app" from
>> the floor):
>>
>> http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/03/22/app.store.fight/index.html
> I wrote about the "app store" feud on Word Routes and in the NYT Week in Review:
>
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2674/
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/weekinreview/27zimmer.html
>
> And in this week's developments, the Wall St. Journal reports that our
> own Ron Butters provided expert testimony in Microsoft's complaint
> against Apple over the trademarkability of "app store":
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110329-714842.html
>
> Commentary by Mark Liberman on Language Log here:
>
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3059
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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