A Dutch company has changed its name in order to settle a trademark dispute with Apple.
App Stores BV—a name that Apple objected to on the grounds that it was too similar to its own App Store—is now known as Wazado Mobile Applications BV.
Last month, the Navv satellite navigation app made by App Stores BV, was pulled from the iTunes App Store while the two companies disputed the trademark.
“Dutch-origin App Stores BV, the developer of Navv and legal name behind the organization, entered into the process of changing its name in order to prevent possible copyright violations concerning Apple Inc’s ‘App Store’ brand name. Due to outstanding circumstances, Navv was temporary out of sale,” Wazado said in a statement.
However, the app has now been reinstated, with the U.S. version costing $25.
In March, it emerged that Apple was taking Amazon to court over the latter’s use of the name Appstore for its app download service for Android OS.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is disputing Apple’s trademark of the term ‘App Store’, saying that the term is too generic trademark. Apple, firing back at Microsoft, questioned the Redmond company’s attitude to the word ‘windows’.
Other brands that have used the ‘app store’ name have come under fire from Apple too—for example adult website MiKandi, who received a cease-and-desist order from Apple in March, Geekwire reported.