None of this is nearly as entertaining as hearing Richard Dreyfuss’ dramatic readings of Apple’s user license agreements. But, as far as outrageousness goes, it’s right up there.

By now, Apple’s efforts to enforce a trademark on the term “App Store” and other players’ reactions to it are pretty well documented. Microsoft & Friends are opposing it at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and elsewhere, and Amazon is fighting for its use of the Amazon Appstore for Android in a California court. 

Pretty much anyone in the industry with any connection whatsoever to app stores has a dog in this fight. But Apple put the icing on the cake (or, should I say, “the dog in the doghouse”) last week when it sent a cease and desist letter to the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP). It just makes you want to say: Really, Apple? Are you that low?

The whole dispute was iAnnoying and iIrritating, but adding WIP, which is working on behalf of developers in a cross-platform manner, to Apple’s roster of so-called “wrong-doers” is mind-boggling. It’s one thing to take on Amazon, which is certainly more of a threat to Apple, but quite another to pick on WIP.

Apple has a tendency to act as if nothing existed before it came along. In Apple’s eyes, mobile advertising didn’t exist – at least, not very well done mobile advertising – until it launched iAds. Same with the App Store. Apparently no one else had the idea of selling apps for mobile devices until Apple christened the App Store and launched an entire industry. (OK, sarcasm aside, Apple does deserve credit for developing a hugely popular and wildly successful apps ecosystem tied to iTunes. Credit duly noted.)

Apple contends it created and popularized the mark “APP STORE” to refer to its mobile software download service, and as a result of its investment, the predominant usage of the term is as a proper noun referring to Apple’s online market. Nobody’s else’s market, mind you.

From what I glean, Apple does not believe the words “app store” together generically refers to a store for apps. The words “app” and “store” might be generic on their own, but Apple puts forth all kinds of other examples, some better than others, like “The Container Store,” that refer to a specific store. I also get that “store” historically has meant a physical retail store rather than an online place that sells digital goods, but in this day and age, most people know what you’re talking about when you say “app store.”

Apparently having the first three letters of the company’s name next to the term “store” is something Apple wants to hang onto. Nice double meaning there. But I don’t believe that when someone says: “app store,” that they are always necessarily referring specifically to Apple’s App Store. Usually, you need to clarify if they are referring to iOS or another platform.

I also understand that a majority of the public, not a subset like wireless, must understand the term to be generic and not associate it specifically with Apple or Apple’s service quality. I haven’t seen any recent third-party surveys showing what people think of when they hear the term “app store” to know if most consumers think that’s referring to Apple. If I had to guess, I’d say if someone asked: “What’s an app store?” or “What’s the App Store?,” you’d have to explain the entire smartphone/tablet ecosystem to them, and as part of that discussion, you’d also have to explain the whole brouhaha around Apple trying to own the term, so to speak. That is, if you want to spend the time explaining it. 

What if you tried to get around it by calling it an “apps store”? There again, I doubt that Apple would go for that since it’s already chasing after Amazon for its slight deviation in calling its market the “Appstore for Android.” Technically, though, it would seem that “apps” in the plural would be as or more accurate as “app store” because the stores offer more than one app, and presumably, the operators of the stores want people to buy multiple apps, not just one and done.  

Given all the attention Apple has put on trademarks and the “APP STORE” specifically of late, you’d think they would have approached iCloud Communications before widely blasting its own iCloud services all over town/the world last week. Now iCloud is forced to go the lawsuit route to defend its mark.

Apple does list its trademarks here,and App Store is among the terms listed. But just to be safe, Apple’s legal team put the following disclaimer at the top: “The absence of a product or service name or logo from this list does not constitute a waiver of Apple’s trademark or other intellectual property rights concerning that name or logo.” Sweet, huh?