For Apple Lawyers, A is for Appeal, P is for Patent

by Mark J. Miller


After the iPhone 5 blitz that hit store shelves last Friday, you’d think that employees in Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters would be taking a brief breather and maybe doing a few iJigs in the hallways. But there’s no rest for the weary, particularly for Apple’s legal department. In addition to the ongoing patent spat with Samsung, there's plenty of other legal business keeping them busy these days.
“Trademark judges last week denied Cupertino's attempt to protect its music app image,” PCmagreports, with the judge permitting the soon-to-relaunch Myspace to use a music note mark. Apple lawyers argued that eight other companies similarly use musical notes without anyone being confused, but the judges weren’t going for it and now Apple has the option of appealing the decision.
Elsewhere, Apple’s legal team is attempting to get Amazon.com to stop using the term “app store” — even though the leadership of Apple has used the phrase while describing the work of competitors, Amazon contends. Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken about “the number of app stores out there” while the now-deceased Steve Jobs once mentioned the “four app stores on Android,” Reuters reports.
"Apple presumably does not contend that its past and current CEOs made false statements regarding to those other app stores to thousands of investors in earnings calls," Amazon argued, according to Reuters. "To the contrary, the use of the term 'app store' to refer to stores selling apps is commonplace in the industry."


And don’t think Apple’s patent lawyers are snoozing, either. The word from 9to5mac.com is that Apple has filed for patents for docking stations that will allow consumers to charge their equipment wirelessly.

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