[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] on Wednesday dismissed a false advertising claim by Apple against Amazon [corporate websites] over the use of the term “APP STORE” for the Android device software. While Apple claims that Amazon misused [Reuters report] the phrase to solicit developers, Amazon counters that the phrase has become commonplace and that its use is not false advertising. In granting Amazon’s partial motion for summary judgment [Bloomberg report], Judge Phyllis Hamilton said that Apple had not shown that Amazon deliberately mislead consumers. Wednesday’s ruling applies only to Apple’s false advertising claim, and Apple’s other claims, including trademark infringement, have not been dismissed. Trial for the remaining claims is scheduled for August.

Apple has also been engaged in litigation with Samsung [corporate website] in courts around the world. According to some commentators [JURIST op-ed], Apple’s legal strategy has been an effort to influence the marketplace from the courtroom. Earlier this week a US judge denied [JURIST report] Samsung’s request to keep sales data from some of its products sealed in its patent dispute with Apple. In October, a Dutch court ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung did not infringe on an Apple design patent. That same month, a UK court ruled [JURIST report] in favor of Samsung in a design infringement case, and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung that prevented it from selling its Galaxy Nexus product. In August of 2012, Apple won [JURIST report] a $ 1.05 billion judgment against Samsung for violating Apple’s smartphone and tablet technology related patents.