It opened Tuesday, despite the trademark infringement suit Apple filed on Friday
Source: Amazon.com via The New York Times
[UPDATE: Sometime after 7:00 a.m. EST, the Amazon Appstore went live. Looks like Apple will have to go back to court and start specifying those unspecified damages it was seeking.]
Okay. It's Tuesday morning, and according to the New York Times, Amazon is supposed to enter the mobile app business today with a splash -- giving away a free copy of Angry Birds Rio for Google (GOOG) Android phones.
But as of 6:00 a.m. EST, the link the Times provided (amazon.com/appstore) wasn't working, and it may never work if Apple (AAPL) has anything to say about it.
[UPDATE: It's working now.]
Last week, Apple sued Amazon in a California federal court, asking a judge to block Amazon from using the term "Appstore." Three years ago, Apple applied for a trademark on its own "App Store," an online software emporium that now offers more than 350,000 applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and has delivered more than 10 billion downloads.
"Consumers of mobile software downloads are likely to be confused as to whether Amazon's mobile software download service is sponsored or approved by Apple," Apple said in its complaint.
In January, Microsoft (MSFT) challenged Apple's App Store trademark, arguing that the term "app store" is generic. Apple countered in court that "App Store" is no more generic than "Windows," a trademark Microsoft has fought vigorously to defend -- as, by law, any trademark holder must.
Also on Fortune.com:
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
Steven Gibson, founder of Righthaven, spoke with Fortune for our story on his work in copyright lawsuits. Below, an edited excerpt of our interview with him.
Interview by John Patrick Pullen, contributor
Fortune: In the column from May 2010 where Review-Journal writer Sherman Frederick described new arrangements with Righthaven, he called it a technology firm. How is Righthaven a technology firm?
Gibson: Sherman Frederick does not speak for us, and we did not ghostwrite MORE
Jan 6, 2011 12:39 PM ET
The social graph of telecom litigants just got a little more convoluted
With thanks and apologies to InformationIsBeautiful.net, whose lovely graphic we've updated to put Apple's (AAPL) countersuit against Motorola (MOT) late Friday into context.
Source: Information Is Beautiful
Note, as David McCandless and James Key pointed out three weeks ago when they posted the original, that the companies whose revenues are shrinking tend to launch more lawsuits than those that are MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 31, 2010 8:18 AM ET
That HTC Android phone you bought made Microsoft a few bucks in license fees.
On the back of the news that Microsoft (MSFT) is suing Motorola (MOT) for patent infringments related to Android, Steve Ballmer tells the Wall Street Journal that HTC is paying a license fee for its use of Android...and that other Android manufactures may be forced to do the same.
WSJ: Is that difficult in an environment where Android MORE Seth Weintraub - Oct 3, 2010 10:59 PM ET
Oracle contends that Google's Android Operating System violates patents it picked up when it purchased Sun Microsystems.
In a press release posted after business today, Oracle (ORCL) charged that Google's (GOOG) Android OS infringes on Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java.
"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement," Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement.
The complaint alleges MORE
Seth Weintraub - Aug 12, 2010 10:11 PM ET
A Utah woman used Google Maps' walking directions on her Blackberry and was given directions to walk onto a highway. She got hit and is now suing Google for damages.
You know those warning labels on those chemical packets that come in new shoes that say 'do not eat'? Have you ever wondered why they have to print something so stupidly obvious?
Enter Lauren Rosenberg of Park City, Utah. She used Google MORE
Seth Weintraub - May 29, 2010 5:29 PM ET
Answers charges of patent "theft" with a polite press release and a Google e-mail address
Two weeks after Apple (AAPL) filed a pair of lawsuits against HTC for allegedly infringing on 20 iPhone-related patents, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer broke its silence. In a series of press interviews and a statement released early Thursday morning, it said:
HTC advocates intellectual property protection
It has always respected other innovators' technologies and will continue to do MORE
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