Apple Inc has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc, accusing the online retailer of copyright infringement over Apple's APP STORE trademark, media reports said Tuesday.
The complaint, filed in a California federal court Friday, said Amazon has improperly used Apple's APP STORE mark to solicit software developers throughout the United States.
Amazon's new store for mobile phone applications is called "Amazon Appstore." Apple alleges that the name is too close to that of its iOS app store "App Store."
Apple has applied to register the APP STORE trademark in the United States, a bid which Microsoft opposes.
"We've asked Amazon not to copy the APP STORE name because it will confuse and mislead customers," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said on Monday.
Amazon.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon has yet to officially launch the Amazon Appstore, which is set to sell apps for Google's Android mobile operating system and be integrated into Amazon.com. Amazon began accepting developer submissions to its Amazon Appstore developer portal in January.