Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) may not yet be making much headway with its U.S. effort to stop Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) using ‘Appstore’ for its parallel Android Market. But, in Germany, Amazon has caved in to Apple’s legal challenge – at least, for now.
Amazon sent German app developers this email…
Dear Amazon Appstore Developer,
Thank you for your participation in the Amazon Appstore for Android. We wanted to notify you of a recent change to your Developer Portal account; for the time being, we are not accepting new app submissions from developers located in Germany. We have been forced to impose this restriction due to a legal action filed by Apple in Germany seeking to prevent us from using the term “appstore.” We believe Apple’s claim is without merit and are actively contesting it.
When you log into your Developer Portal account, you will notice that the options to add new apps have been removed. We hope to begin accepting new apps from German developers again soon and will notify you as soon as we are able to do so.
We appreciate your patience and your continued interest in the Amazon Appstore for Android.
Thank you,
Amazon Appstore Account Team
Amazon Appstore isn’t available outside America. Here, Amazon is disallowing app submissions from German developers, the net effect of which will be marginally fewer apps available to users in America. It will be interesting to see whether amazon takes a similar tack in other countries.
A U.S. judge recently said knocked back Amazon’s argument that the “app store” term is generic but said there was no link between what happens on Amazon Appstore and Apple reputation. The judge denied an injunction barring Amazon from using the term until a trial is due to start October 2012.