A federal judge dismissed a portion of Apple Inc. 's suit against Amazon.com Inc. over the name for its digital marketplace of applications for mobile devices.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton granted Amazon's motion for summary judgment dismissing a false advertising claim in the case. Trademark infringement claims in the case remain to be decided.

Amazon uses the single word "Appstore" for its marketplace, while Apple calls its own the "App Store." Judge Hamilton said in an order issued Wednesday that Apple had failed to make clear how Amazon's use of the word Appstore confused customers, particularly over whether they are accessing Apple's services or Amazon's.

"Apple contends that because its App Store offers so many more apps than Amazon's Appstore, consumers will be misled into thinking that Amazon's Appstore will offer just as many," Judge Hamilton wrote in her order. "There is no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple App Store."

Additionally, the judge wrote, Apple's service only sells apps for the company's iPhone, iPad and other devices, whereas Amazon's store sells apps solely for devices running Google Inc. 's Android operating system, such as its Kindle Fire.