Judges negotiate on dispute settlement of Apple's Amazon trademark

A judge in San Francisco issued an order on Wednesday demanding that Apple and Amazon initiate negotiations on the "appstore" trademark dispute.

Representatives of the two companies will start negotiations on March 21. Earlier this month, the court had made a ruling in favor of Amazon, denying Apple's allegations of false advertising.

Despite this, other charges in the case still exist; if the two companies fail to reach a settlement, the case will enter the trial phase in August.

Apple first sued Amazon in 2011, alleging that Amazon infringed Apple’s “App Store” trademark. Many other technology companies, including Microsoft, have strongly discouraged the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from approving Apple’s trademark application.

Amazon filed an objection in September last year, claiming that "app store" has become a regular word, and it can name its digital download service "Amazon Appstore". Since Apple opened its iOS store in 2008, it has been using the App Store name.

The App Store is critical to the success of the iPhone and iPad, and hundreds of thousands of apps are now available for Apple’s mobile devices. Earlier this month, Apple announced that the total number of downloads on the App Store has exceeded 40 billion, and about half of the downloads occurred in 2012.