Apple to trademark distinctive retail store layout

Maybe PC manufacturers should start suing Apple for infringing into PC manufacturing by essentially becoming a PC, instead of just being what they were before, a MAC computer with its proprietary components. They have assimilated everything a PC has. USB ports, Intel processors, DDr Ram memory, PCI Express video.

People who live in glass houses...

Apple stores look a lot like the Gateway stores that preceded them. This is like Apple suing others over the mouse idea they stole from Xerox. The legendary stupidity of the US Patent and Trademark offices: patents for 'swinging on a swing sideways', 'using a laser pointer to exercise your cat', 'dunking chocolate chip cookies in milk', giving Amazon a trademark on "the shopping cart"(and how long has that been around?). Apple doesn't sell well in Europe and Asia because they cannot enforce monopoly with lawsuits.

The new Apple Store near me (larger space in same mall it was in before) doesn't have a checkout counter as such. Any staffer can ring you up on his/her iPhone. I generally have them email me my receipt, but on iPad day 1 they were giving paper receipts--the guy just reached under the nearest product display table, where a receipt printer was hidden. No obvious cash-wrap is a distinctive design approach for retail.

Remember trade-maqrks are LIMITED to named wares and services. So someone might be able to open up a store with the EXACT same trade-dress that sells something different like cosmetics etc.

P.S. Come to think of it. I have seen Apple's trade dress BEFORE Apple used it in stores that do not compete with Apple.

Distictive? Really?

I'd say that the Apple Stores emulate high-end fashion boutiques.

Wouldn't GAP be prior art?

typooooooooooooooooooooooomg you guys have typos every day but THIS _THIS_ takes tha cake! get it together tuaw!

It would be interesting to compare revenue earned per square foot between the average Apple store and the average Microsoft store. Supposedly, on average, Apple stores earn more per square foot than Tiffany's.

As for patents, I'm pretty sure this one won't be granted. Apple's retail management came from The Gap, and Target, so they didn't design the Apple stores using any radical newbie ideas.