Apple forces Amazon German app store lockdown
Source: Dave Neal
BOOKSELLER Amazon has had to shut down its application store to Germans thanks to Steve Jobs' belief that he owns the right to add the word 'store' to another word and then claim it for the rest of eternity.
Apple, of course, has what it calls an App Store, in which it sells applications. Because some other firms, which also want to sell applications in a store, have taken this generic term and used it themselves, Jobs has thrown toys out of his pram, along with some of his cappuccino company's lawyers.
Although his argument that it is not okay to combine the word 'app' with the word 'store', has not won much support in the US, thanks to some wily courts' work, it seems to be doing better in Europe, where Amazon has closed down its German store for apps submissions.
According to the Paidcontent news web site but so far unconfirmed by Amazon to us, the firm sent out an email to developers over the weekend in which it blamed Apple for the closure and apologised to its community.
"Thank you for your participation in the Amazon Appstore for Android. We wanted to notify you of a recent change to your Developer Portal account; for the time being, we are not accepting new app submissions from developers located in Germany," it wrote.
"We have been forced to impose this restriction due to a legal action filed by Apple in Germany seeking to prevent us from using the term 'appstore'. We believe Apple's claim is without merit and are actively contesting it."
Amazon has been actively contesting the claim since it first reared its head, and more recently Getjar also joined the cause.
Neither Apple nor Amazon had replied to phone calls for comment at the time of going to press. µ
Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2098424/apple-forces-amazon-german-app-store-lockdown#ixzz1TnSauMK5
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