A US judge denied Apple’s preliminary injunction against Amazon, which would make the latter stop using the name ‘App Store’. The issue will be resolved starting October 2012, when the next trial date has been set, leaving Amazon free to use the name by that date.

Apple argued that the term ‘App Store’ is trademark and will confuse customers about potential connection to Apple or other services that use the name. Amazon said that it is a generic term that can hardly be trademarked and the judge seems to have agreed.

The injunction has been dismissed due to Apple not establishing likelihood of confusion in its examples. However, although the judge did not agree that the term is entirely generic, she admittedly had been skeptical of Apple winning the case.

More here.