Amazon launches App Store, gets Sued by Apple

Amazon’s App Store for Android was officially launched today, with 3800 applications. This spanking new online store has some pretty neat features such as ‘free app of the day’, inbuilt app test drive and a recommendation engine which suggests certain apps to users. They’ve even started off the store by giving away Angry Birds Rio for free! Of course, this isn't available for us in india as yet.

Who will prevail? Apple or Amazon?

But here's a twist in the tale. According to sources, all is not well among in the land of the Amazons, as Apple has taken Amazon to court on Monday over their App Store, which is allegedly an infringement on a trademark. Apparently Apple asked Amazon to refrain from using the name ‘App Store’ thrice, and they did not comply. The lawsuit was filed on Friday, but became public on the day before Amazon’s store was supposed to be launched.

This is a war that’s been going on for a while now, as even Microsoft has challenged it saying that the term ‘App Store’ is far too generic to be trademarked. However, Apple has retorted by saying that the name is meant to recall Apple as a brand and that the App Store is primarily identified with Apple itself.

So here’s a story that will probably continue for a while to come. Wonder who will come out on the top, though, as most other phone and OS makers have various other names for their online stores.