Microsoft in a response to the USPTO (below) on Tuesday cited the just launched Amazon Appstore as evidence that Apple couldn't maintain "app store" as a trademark. It used the launch last Tuesday as evidence that there was a "competitive need" from companies to use the concept of an app store generically. About 17 stores were already using it where Apple had claimed that use beyond its own shop was virtually non-existent, Microsoft said, and those that hadn't had primarily been intimidated into avoiding the name.
