Microsoft and Apple are currently embroiled in a fairly ridiculous court case over whether Apple should be allowed to trademark the phrase "App Store"。

　　微軟和蘋果最近卷入一場荒謬的官司：蘋果能不能拿"App Store"這個詞注冊商標?

　　In the latest salvo, Microsoft has continued its opposition to Apple with testimony from linguist, Dr Ronald R Butters, PhD, arguing that app store just means "store at which apps are offered for sale". Butters has been employed to to refute testimony for Apple by Dr Robert A. Leonard, PhD, which argued App Store was a proper noun that had become associated with Apple. Or something like that. It's all a bit complicated, semantic even。

　　微軟引用語言學家Ronald R Butters的意見，稱"App Store"這個詞組意為“出售應用軟件的商店”，是通用詞匯(就跟“五金店”一樣，沒人會用這種詞來注冊商標)，不能用來當商標的名字。蘋果那邊則聘請 Robert A. Leonard教授辯護，后者認為App Store是專有名詞，而且一說就使人聯想到蘋果，當然可以拿來做商標名。從語義學上看的確蠻復雜。

　　As an aside, it's funny how both linguists have a middle initial in their name - do you think that's something common to linguists or only to linguists that provide expert testimony to computer companies engaged in trademark rows?

　　跳出來看，亮點在于兩位語言學家的名字里都有一個首字母縮寫的中名——你覺得是語言學家都有這樣的名字，還是只限于會為IT公司商標爭奪戰提供專業意見的語言學家?

　　Quite why a company that trademarked the word Windows should have an issue with a company that has trademarked the word Apple seeking to do the same for App Store is a bit odd. Was Microsoft planning to follow in Apple's footsteps by launching its own "store at which apps are offered for sale" and calling it the App Store?

　　到底為什么一家用windows這個詞注冊了商標的公司會和一家用apple這個詞注冊了商標的公司，會就app store這個詞能不能用來注冊商標吵起來?難倒微軟也想弄一個“出售應用軟件的商店”的品牌，并取名叫app store?

　　A bit of common sense might have been better employed from both sides rather than paying lawyers and linguists. Sadly, there isn't an app for that。

　　雙方都要有點腦子才行啊不要把錢白白浪費在請律師和語言學家上面。不過，還真沒有那一款軟件能解決這個問題。

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