Cupertino Bully Apple has now attacked an open source project Amahi. The project has received a cease and desist notice from Apple lawyers over the usage of the term App Store.

Apple Applied for the trademark over the term App Store which was contested by Microsoft stating that App Store is a generic term which can be used by anyone. It's like WallMart trademarking the term "Departmental Store" and sue everyone else who uses the generic term.

Apple has already sued Amazon.com for using the term for its own Android store. It was not Apple which conceptualized the name AppStore. The name came from former Apple executive Marc Benioff, now head of Salesforce.

Even Microsoft has contested the trademark. Microsoft filed a motion with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to bar Apple from holding exclusive rights of the term.

Microsoft said that "App" is a generic term which is used widely and Apple should not have an exclusive ownership of it. Apple, as per its image, responded that "the vastly predominant usage of the expression 'app store' in trade press is as a reference to Apple's extraordinarily well-known APP STORE mark and the services rendered by Apple thereunder."

While Amazon can fight the big bully Apple, a small project like Amahi may not. The project is now running a contest to find a new name.

According to Amahi blog by Carlos, for the Amahi Team, "We’re still trying to determine what is the best course of action, however, this looks like a rather heavy handed move. Amahi being literally nothing next to Apple (sigh) we do not have the resources to fight this battle."

Carlos further wrote, "As much as I respect Apple, I believe the term “app store” as we have been using it is generic of a store to buy apps, or descriptive, a very weak category of mark, if at all. I hope that Apple will not be entitled to monopolize the term after the litigation goes through. It’s nice to see that Amazon (and Microsoft) are bringing a strong challenge to the Apple claim."