Microsoft is fighting Apple's claim that it has dibs on the name "App Store," arguing that the term is generic and can be used by any shop selling programmes for gadgets such as smartphones.
Microsoft filed a motion in January with the US Patent and Trademark Office to deny Apple's request to "exclusively appropriate" the term "app store" based on the success of the iPhone, iPod and iPad maker's online software shop bearing that name.
In a filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Apple asked that the challenge be dismissed and pointed out that one of Microsoft's most prominent trademarks has also been challenged as generic.
"Having itself faced a decades-long genericness challenge to its claimed Windows mark, Microsoft should be well aware that the focus in evaluating genericness is on the mark as a whole and requires a fact-intensive assessment of the primary significance of the term to a substantial majority of the relevant public," says Apple in the filing (Apple's emphasis).
"Yet, Microsoft, missing the forest for the trees, does not base its motion on a comprehensive evaluation of how the relevant public understands the term App Store as a whole."
Microsoft on its part reportedly said that it sticks by its argument and will continue its challenge of Apple's trademark application.
A Microsoft representative told CNET that the company remains confident about its case and believes that the term 'App Store' should continue to be available for use by all without fear of reprisal by Apple. He also said that the company will continue to move forward with the trademark opposition proceeding in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
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