My lawyer friend Nicola used to say that a sure sign of a market coming of age was when the litigation started. I suspect she’s right. In which case, Microsoft’s petition to block Apple from trademarking the term “app store” is perhaps a sign that many can see a very bright future – perhaps the future – in this idea.
Having successfully quartered “there’s an app for that”, Apple clearly identified, way back in 2008, that when you have dibs over the language around a concept, you potentially get to own the mindshare around that idea as well. You essentially force others to express their offering in language that the market sees as stemming from you. (The fact that an “app” is an abbreviation of Apple – coincidental or not – is inspired.) That of course is what Apple are so keen to protect and Microsoft so determined to challenge.
Leading the conversation is hard. It’s risky. There are so many things that can of course go wrong. But there are benefits. You get discussed a lot, even if, in the case of Apple, you don’t have a significant social media presence of your own. And you get to decide and define the terms and ideas that frame how the world talks. Word of mouth – quite literally.
