Apple spanks adult "app store" MiKandi with a cease-and-desist

This is just getting ridiculous. Even if Apple had a valid trademark with APP STORE, which I don't think they do, they would have no right to enforce it against this use of the term. A trademark doesn't give you a complete monopoly over all uses of the term, only the uses of the term that convey the source of the product. From what I can tell, this isn't a "trademark use" of the term app store. Moreover, I think there is about zero chance that anyone will confuse "the world's first adult app store" with Apples's App Store. But what it does do, and my guess is why Apple is going after these guys, is highlight the problems they are having in the Patent and Trademark Office. Their battle there has nothing to do with whether they coined the term or were the first to use it, it has to do with 1) whether App Store is merely descriptive of what the product is (i.e. a store for apps), for which Apple must show that people have come to associate the term with Apple and 2) whether app store is generic because it is a term that refers generally to the product of mobile application markets. This has to do with the latter because Apple is going around trying to get people to stop referring to all app markets as "app stores," but that's going to be an interesting task seeing as Apple and Jobs have themselves often referred to markets on other platforms as "app stores."

Sorry to ramble, just my $0.02.

Easy... Change the name to the more appropriate "Fap Store"

Thank you for the coverage!
While we believe that the term 'app store' is too generic to be trademarked, we know better than to fight a battle we can't afford. We'll let the giants (Amazon, Microsoft, Apple) hash this one out. ;)
In the meantime, adult Android users are welcome to download our app MARKET by going to mikandi.com.

From the blog:

"Apple is doing what it should to stake its claim to the trademark for "app store" by aggressively pursuing anyone who uses the term publicly."

It's such a COMMON WORD that Apple should NOT be granted a patent for it. If Apple came out with a product called TUAW or "Sande", got a patent for it and goes after this blog, what would you feel?

This blog is so one-sided with Apple that it turned a blind-eye on everything else non-Apple.

Is this for jailbroken ipohone or is it for another platform? Article doesn't specify. I wish Apple would allow a separate section that people could opt in or have restricted access, just like the developer area or the way they allow businesses publish private apps that aren't for sale.

Lets be honest, nobody called apps apps, till apple did, the windows world uses programs, the mac world used applications, apple deserves to have the trademark

I'm sure MiKandi is smarting from all this attention for their app sto… I mean, market.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but whilst Apple have applied for the trademark, they have not yet been granted it.

defend it or lose it.