Amazon’s Latest Weapon Against Apple in ‘App Store’ Lawsuit? Steve Jobs

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The ongoing trademark war over the rights to the term “app store” just had another interesting turn. This time Amazon’s assertion of the phrase’s genericness cites a few key phrases used by Steve Jobs himself in a recent conference call.

GeekWire is reporting that the Seattle-based retailer has asked that Apple’s complaint be thrown out on the basis that “app store” is actually a generic term, pointing out that the Apple figurehead used the wording plainly during the company’s quarterly call.

Here’s what Jobs said (the bold is mine):

In addition to Google’s own app marketplace, Amazon, Verizon and Vodafone have all announced that they are creating their own app stores for Android. So there will be at least four app stores on Android, which customers must search among to find the app they want and developers will need to work with to distribute their apps and get paid.

Then there’s this:

Contrast this with Apple’s integrated App Store, which offers users the easiest-to-use largest app store in the world, preloaded on every iPhone.

Touché, Amazon.

The genericness of the term has been the subject of several debates and filings involving a number of parties. Recently, Apple also dropped its attempts to trademark the word “Pod” with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, in what has been a staling back-and-forth since the original filing back in 2004.

The implications of the court’s ruling over the term’s genericness will have huge implications for other app sellers, including Microsoft’s coming Windows app store, among others.

More on TIME.com:

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