While of only tangential relation to Android (the Amazon Appstore is an Android app store after all), when Apple filed a lawsuit against Amazon over 2 years ago for infringing its trademark on "App Store," I got a bit perturbed. Their reasoning? Well, basically there wasn't much in the way of good legal argument for the case from day one. In fact, Apple probably knew the likelihood of a victory was low, and has been biding time hoping that Amazon would cave to a settlement demand.

Let me just quote directly from Apple's original response to Amazon's defense against the lawsuit, which I think sums up the legitimacy of Apple's position in this whole debacle sufficiently:

Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words “app store” together denote a store for apps. - Apple, Inc., 2011

In order for Apple to have succeeded on the merits in this case, it would have needed to convince a jury that an "app store" is not, in fact, how you generally describe a place or business which generally exists for the purpose of distributing and selling software applications.

Today, Cupertino threw in the towel, and settled the suit with Amazon on a single condition: that Amazon won't sue Apple for using "Appstore" in the future.

I believe that is what is known in the legal business as "losing."

Reuters