Microsoft's made its complaint official Apple had the original App Store

That Apple had the original App Store isn't under dispute, but should the company have the right to exclude others from using the same term to describe their program repositories? Microsoft says no, and has this week filed a motion with the US Patent and Trademark Office asking for it to dismiss Apple's trademark claim for "App Store."

Arguing that the mark's constituent words are generic both individually and as a pair, Microsoft brings out the big guns by quoting Steve Jobs himself, whose exposition on the topic of Android fragmentation included specific mention of multiple "app stores" for the Google OS.

It would seem this has been brewing for a while, too, as the last update - dated 7th of July, 2010 - on Apple's trademark application notes there's a "pending" opposition to its claim. Now that Microsoft's made its complaint official, it'll be interesting to see on which side of the great divide the decision falls.