Amazon won a small victory in defense of its use of the term “app store” for its Android and Kindle apps.

A Judge has ruled against Apple’s claim of false advertisement, stating that “ no evidence that a consumer who accesses the Amazon Appstore would expect that it would be identical to the Apple APP STORE, particularly given that the Apple APP STORE sells apps solely for Apple devices, while the Amazon Appstore sells apps solely for Android and Kindle devices. Further, the integration of Apple devices has more to do with Apple’s technology than it does with the nature, characteristics, or qualities of the APP STORE.”

The ruling only applies to a small part of Apple’s lawsuit that claims Amazon has wrongly used the term “app store” resulting in trademark infringement and unfair competition. While the victory may be small, the ruling would mean a clear direction for Amazon’s mobile app content to be directly competitive with Apple.2013 might be the year of mobile litigations as lawsuits become the mode through which technology and ideas create more opportunities for monetization.

Via Gigaom