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| The History of 'App' and the Demise of the Programmer |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2011-06-24 22:46:38 |
| As we reported earlier this week, Apple is busy sending out cease and desist letters to small, defenceless projects to defend its trademark application (it doesn't actually own the trademark yet) for 'app store'. This has prompted many a discussion over the trademarkability of such a generic term, and over the origins of the abbreviation 'app'. Who came up with it? How old is it? To my surprise - the abbreviation is much older than you'd think, and in a way, it illustrates quite well the demise of the programmer. What? Read on. |
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| Comment by _txf_ |
| By _txf_ on 2011-06-24 23:20:29 |
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"'App', then, illustrates the demise of the programmer - the programmers are no longer calling the shots. Marketing and legal do." I suspect that this is one of the reasons the osnews crowd tends to favour companies like google versus companies like apple or microsoft (to a lesser extent) simply because the opinions of the programmers in a company like google are much closer and more accessible to the public. That isn't to say that there isn't a lot of bs coming from google marketing and legal, just that the engineers and programmers at google (also ms) have a much greater voice as a representation of their company. Apple which strives to control everything and shows its public persona via very specific channels leading hiding a lot of aspects of the company from the likes of us, who, appreciate their products simply fail to see the people behind them and as such can only assume that marketing and legal are in charge (something that we see every day). |
 - Score: 7 |
| RE: This is a red herring |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2011-06-24 23:22:18 |
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> Apple is not trademarking app. They are trademarking "App Store". They are not disallowing anyone calling their apps "apps". If App Store is such an obvious name, why was no one using it before. Apple has popularised the "App Store" moniker, and they want to be the only ones reaping the benefit. This is such a non issue. When it comes to computing, there are real issue, like lock-in, interoperability etc that need addressed, not the name someone gives to their store. Please go back and read the first paragraph after the teaser kthnxbi. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: This is a red herring |
| By _txf_ on 2011-06-24 23:25:18 |
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> Apple is not trademarking app. They are trademarking "App Store". They are not disallowing anyone calling their apps "apps". Go see the comments in the other article for other peoples opinions on that logical fallacy. But to add my own... Why can't I trademark "Book Store" or any other similar term? |
| - Score: 8 |
| Programmers & App Store |
| By fran on 2011-06-24 23:56:32 |
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Apple has lost its "App Store" trademark case on another front against Amazon. Seems App is to colloquial. Even in combination with store. It would be like trade marking "Food Store" http://channel.hexus.net/content... Programmers are a booming profession of rising importance again and increasingly used to fill management positions. Below a link on a Microsoft initiative. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/micros... Not to speak of meritocracy structures in Foss and Linux. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by Liskat |
| By Liskat on 2011-06-25 01:28:58 |
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You should be able to trademark letters, like the letter 'i'. I honestly think these systems were put in place to protect one, but abuse always seem to happen. Edited 2011-06-25 01:31 UTC |
| - Score: 1 |
| 1983 |
| By earksiinni on 2011-06-25 02:37:15 |
| http://www.worldcat.org/title/fo... |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: 1983 |
| By earksiinni on 2011-06-25 03:03:29 |
| Mind you, that's the oldest instance I could find of "app" used as an independent word in English (using a very cursory search of library catalog entry titles). Its use as an actual abbreviation goes way back, even into medieval Latin, but it has traditionally referred to "appendix" rather than "application". |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: This is a red herring |
| By WereCatf on 2011-06-25 04:55:11 |
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> Apple is not trademarking app. They are trademarking "App Store". They are not disallowing anyone calling their apps "apps". If App Store is such an obvious name, why was no one using it before. Apple has popularised the "App Store" moniker, and they want to be the only ones reaping the benefit. This is such a non issue. When it comes to computing, there are real issue, like lock-in, interoperability etc that need addressed, not the name someone gives to their store. To give a simple yet exactly equally obvious example: should I be able to just go out and trademark "Shopping Mall" as my own? |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[2]: This is a red herring |
| By MOS6510 on 2011-06-25 06:11:25 |
| Did you popularize this term then? |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE[3]: This is a red herring |
| By Neolander on 2011-06-25 06:43:20 |
|
The question is interesting nonetheless. Can a company legally use a trademark on a word or expression that has become the commonplace way of describing a concept ? As an example, I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that in the UK, people don't use "to vacuum clean" all so often. To describe the action of using a powerful electric pump to suck up everything in the floor of a room*, "to hoover" is preferred. Should the Hoover Company have the right to sue all illegal uses of the term ? * And this reminds me of a webcomic gag about a "suck for a buck" sign and a messy room =_= I spend too much time on the internet. Edited 2011-06-25 06:45 UTC |
| - Score: 2 |
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