In a ruling that came as no shock to anyone, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled against Apple in a trademark lawsuit made against Amazon for use of the phrase “App Store.”

Apple claimed its customers would be confused by there being more than one “App Store,” which would cause irreparable damage to Apple’s brand.  Judge Phyllis Hamilton from the start was not impressed by the weak evidence Apple showed backing its claims.  

Judge Hamilton stated early in the preliminary injunction that she would ” probably deny Apple’s motion because the company lacks solid evidence for its main argument, which is customer confusion….I’m troubled by the showing that you’ve made so far, but that’s where you’re likely not to prevail at this early juncture.”

Judge Hamilton’s ruling on the preliminary injunction concurred with her early skepticism of Apple’s claim that customers would become confused by Amazon using the same phrase.  ”The court finds that Apple has not established a likelihood of success on its dilution claim,” the Judge noted in the official ruling, observed by Reuters.

Amazon’s main argument in its countersuit was that the term “appstore” is a generic term that should not be trademark protected.  Judge Hamilton rejected Amazon’s claim, but also noted that other companies use the phrase “app store” to sell digital applications, which hurts Apple’s main argument of customer confusion.

Photo (Cristiano Betta/Flickr)