Salesforce CEO gave Jobs ‘App Store’ trademark
Apple has been on the receiving of geek grief and angst for suing competitors over use of its App Store trademark. Whereas the technorati argue the term should be viewed as generic and ubiquitous, they miss the obvious point that it was Apple who made it that way. And, yeah, they own it, too.
AppleInsider brings us the somewhat unlikely and inspiring story of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff who not only had the good fortune of having Steve Jobs to lean for advice, but also had the clarity to meaningfully thank him for it.
“He has probably given me more help and more advice than just about anybody,” Benioff said of Jobs in a Bloomberg interview. “And when I get in trouble and I kinda [sic] get lost in my own vision, I’ve been fortunate to be able to go and see him and he’s been willing to show me the future a couple times.”
Thereupon, after Steve Jobs’ 2008 keynote address where he introduced Apple’s App Store, Benioff walked up to the Apple CEO and gave him — yes, just gave him — Salesforce’s “App Store” trademark, which the company had registered back in 2003.
“I’m gonna [sic] give you the trademark and the URL because of the help you gave me in 2003,” he said at the time.
Edison didn’t invent the light bulb either
And, if that’s not enough to convince that Apple owns not just the trademark, but also the concept, consider that the iTunes App Store has served up more than 15 billion apps to more than 200 million customers — nobody comes else close.
Thereupon, Apple has sued Amazon over its misuse of Cupertino’s App Store trademark. However, Microsoft and others have attempted question Apple’s right to such a “generic” term.
Where do you stand?
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August 27th, 2011
“Whereas the technorati argue the term should be viewed as generic and ubiquitous, they miss the obvious point that it was Apple who made it that way. And, yeah, they own it, too.”
This is definitely a contentious fight, especially among UNIX developers who have been using the phrase “app” (which Apple has not disclaimed on its trademark) since the early 90s.
Consider this, “Internet” was once a registered trademark. If a phrase becomes generic, then it can lose it’s ability to become monopolized by any one company. One way to look at this is, what would the generic name be called? Like Kleenex is “facial tissue”, Q-Tip is cotton swap…what would app store be?
That said, it was great reading your article. I think a lot of press has been against Apple so it’s good to have their side explained!
August 27th, 2011
Without Aplle no one would know what an ‘App Store’ is. App Store is synonymous with Apple, period.
August 29th, 2011
here’s a simple idea – why don’t the others call it an app shop instead? problem solved, plus it doesn’t pamper to american english either.