All the computer users know that a computer is useless without Applications. Applications is what you do when you read your email, listen to your music, watch video, write a document, edit a spreadsheet, browse the web and so on..
No wonder, Applications are what make a computer better (or easy to use) than another. Applications have been around since the computers dawned on the human race. So has been the term 'Application' or fondly called 'App' or 'app' for short. It is very important to understand the distinction between the generic term 'Application' or 'App' and the Application itself. The difference is the same as the one between lets say English language and an author's work or creative idea. You can copyright your own literary work, but can you copyright the whole language itself? The answer is plainly 'NO'. The language is a common public entity. Whereas one persons creative use of that language to write a beautiful poem or song is 'that' persons own original work and therefore entitled to individual protection.
Extend this analogy to the computer world. The word Application is like the English language in our example whereas one particular application like lets say a mapping service or an online game is like the authors original literary work. Therefore if an organization tries to bamboozle their way in and try to copyright/trademark the generic term 'App' itself is as baseless as trying to copyright the whole language.
No wonder the Federal court recently threw out Apples claim to the word 'App' and 'App store' and its derivative 'Appstore'. Such monopolizing mentality exhibited by Apple is illegal, unethical and counterproductive to innovation. Amazon on the other hand who is trying to launch their own 'Appstore' for Android have all the right to do so. The court made the right decision. We want this to continue in case they try to drag this lawsuit to higher courts.
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