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Why Apple Challenged MiKandi’s Use of “App Store” in 2011

Apple reportedly challenged MiKandi’s use of “app store” in March 2011. The marketplace soon changed its site wording to “app market,” amid separate disputes over Apple’s trademark application.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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In March 2011, Apple reportedly asked MiKandi, an adult Android app marketplace, to stop using the words “app store.” MiKandi’s website still used the phrase when GeekWire reported the request on March 22; by the following day, AppleInsider reported that the site had changed the wording to “app market.” The episode was part of a broader dispute over Apple’s effort to register APP STORE, but it was not itself a court case.

What Apple reportedly asked MiKandi to do

GeekWire reported on March 22, 2011, that Seattle-based MiKandi had received a request from Apple that month to stop using “app store.” The report described MiKandi as an adult Android app marketplace and said the phrase was still on its website at the time. The original letter is not available here, so its precise wording, legal arguments, deadlines, and other demands are not established.

MiKandi co-founder Jesse Adams said the company would wait to see how Microsoft’s challenge to Apple’s trademark registration developed. He also explained the company’s reluctance to take on Apple alone: “It’s not worth it for us to fight Apple’s legal team over this by ourselves.” GeekWire’s March 22 report attributed the statement to Adams.

How MiKandi responded

On March 23, AppleInsider reported that MiKandi had changed its website references from “app store” to “app market.” That follow-up establishes a change in public wording, not whether Apple and MiKandi reached a settlement or whether any formal legal action followed. The available reporting does not establish a lawsuit or court ruling specifically concerning Apple’s letter to MiKandi. AppleInsider’s follow-up documented the change.

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The contemporaneous GeekWire interview also reported that MiKandi received 10,000 downloads in 12 hours, which Adams attributed to the attention the company received that day. Co-founder Jen McEwen said the marketplace saw 21,000 different search terms per month; that was a company statement, not independently audited market research. Both figures were reported by GeekWire.

How the MiKandi episode fits the wider APP STORE dispute

Apple was seeking to register APP STORE as a trademark, and Microsoft opposed the application on the ground that the phrase was generic. That USPTO opposition was a separate proceeding from Apple’s reported request to MiKandi. A federal court order dated July 6, 2011, in the separate case Apple Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., recounts the opposition and the surrounding controversy; it did not decide whether Apple’s demand to MiKandi was legally valid. Read the July 6, 2011 court order.

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The USPTO TTABVUE docket for Opposition No. 91195582 records that the proceeding terminated on September 4, 2015. That entry reports the proceeding’s procedural status; by itself, it does not show that either side prevailed on the merits, and it does not resolve what happened with MiKandi. The TTABVUE docket is the official record for that opposition.

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What the record establishes—and what it does not

  • Reported request: Apple asked MiKandi to stop using “app store” in March 2011, according to GeekWire’s contemporaneous account.
  • Reported wording change: AppleInsider said the next day that MiKandi’s site had switched to “app market.”
  • Separate legal events: Microsoft’s USPTO opposition to Apple’s APP STORE application and Apple’s litigation against Amazon were distinct from the MiKandi letter.
  • Unestablished details: The letter’s exact terms, any resolution between Apple and MiKandi, and any court decision about the letter are not documented by the cited accounts and records.

The period-specific descriptions “adult app store,” “app market,” and whether MiKandi could be available on iPhone belong to the 2011 coverage; they should not be read as statements about the service today.

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