Every so often, there comes a bit of technology-related news that just makes me smile. Microsoft is pretty good at generating such stories.
The latest: Microsoft has taken action to oppose Apple’s trademark application for the phrase “App Store.”
It’s not hard to understand their logic. These days, apps rule the world. They’re the basic price of admission for any smartphone contender. How can Apple own a phrase made of common words?
The quick answer is: those words weren’t common until Apple started to use them.
The evolution of the word “app” is actually a pet topic of mine. Since Microsoft has struck my justice nerve, I can’t stop myself from sharing.
Everyone who has ever been tasked with writing ads for a technology company will tell you that before apps became popular, there was no simple word one could use to describe a software product. In fact, we had only two words to choose from: application and program. If your goal was to write people-friendly ads, both of these choices sucked.
The word app was indeed part of our vocabulary — but that was only on the inside. Real people didn’t talk that way. Whenever some maverick would suggest that we just say app and be done with it, clients would reject it on the grounds that it was too techy. For the sake of advertising, application and program were left to do the job.
What Apple did when they introduced apps on iPhone may seem innocuous now, but it was actually quite ballsy. They made the conscious decision to take the word app to the mass audience. Others might have used the word on occasion, but Apple was the company that really stepped up to the plate. They put millions of dollars into the “There’s an app for that” campaign. They alone made app a household word.
With App Store taken by Apple, Apps Marketplace taken by Google, and App World taken by Blackberry, poor Microsoft finds itself in an awkward (yet familiar) position. They can either try to be original, or spend a few million bucks to echo someone else.
It does make one wonder why Microsoft isn’t trying to wrestle the other companies’ descriptors away from them. Isn’t the world as common as the word store?
The fact is, companies trademark combinations of common words all the time. When you’re first to think of something, you take legal precautions to prevent others from copying you. The Money Store is trademarked, as are countless other common word combinations.
If Microsoft wanted to be more true to their DNA, they might grab The Copier Store. That one was actually trademarked by some guy in New Jersey, but it’s available now.
The Mobile World Congress met in Barcelona this week. Think of it as the United Nations of mobile technology companies — with about as much ability to influence world events as the real United Nations.
