Amazon.com no longer taking new Appstore submissions in Germany

Although Apple's lawsuit against Amazon.com over the use of Appstore in the name of Amazon.com's Android Marketplace (the Amazon Appstore) hasn't proceeded in perhaps the way Apple would like (U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said recently that she is "probably" going to deny Apple's motion), it's "winning" in Germany: Amazon.com has stopped accepting new apps from developers in that country.

German developers received the following notification email from Amazon.com on Saturday. It said,

Subject: Important Notice for Germany Based Developers

Dear Amazon Appstore Developer,

Thank you for your participation in the Amazon Appstore for Android. We wanted to notify you of a recent change to your Developer Portal account; for the time being, we are not accepting new app submissions from developers located in Germany. We have been forced to impose this restriction due to a legal action filed by Apple in Germany seeking to prevent us from using the term “appstore.” We believe Apple’s claim is without merit and are actively contesting it.

When you log into your Developer Portal account, you will notice that the options to add new apps have been removed. We hope to begin accepting new apps from German developers again soon and will notify you as soon as we are able to do so.

We appreciate your patience and your continued interest in the Amazon Appstore for Android.

Thank you,

Amazon Appstore Account Team

This email doesn't say anything about current apps in the Amazon Appstore, so it's assumed that new version releases / updates to currently existing apps are still allowed.

Amazon.com opened up its Amazon Appstore despite the lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.

Judge Hamilton said she doesn't feel that Apple hasn't shown how there would be confusion between the two markets. One stumbling block, naturally, is that one store carries only iOS programs and the other carries only Android programs. If Apple were to lose in the U.S., its chances in Germany would appear to be small.

Amazon.com makes a paid app free, daily. Its app on the opening day of the Amazon Appstore was the iconic Angry Birds.