Amazon this week asked a California court to dismiss Apple's false advertising claim, the latest move in an ongoing lawsuit regarding the companies' use of the "app store" name.

As Reuters first reported, Amazon said that Apple has not identified a single false statement that Amazon has made about its app store – a necessity to prove false advertising.

"Apple alleges that the use of the word 'Appstore' in Amazon's advertising of the Amazon app store is false advertising," Amazon said in a court filing. "But the word 'Appstore' is part of the name of Amazon's store; it is not a statement about the nature, characteristics, or qualities of Amazon's store, much less a false one."

The "app store" phrasing has become so generic, Amazon said, that it no longer holds any water in terms of false advertising. The company pointed to incidents where Steve Jobs referred to "four app stores on Android" and Tim Cook referenced "the number of App Stores out there."

During a 2011 conference call, Cook also said "our app store is the largest by far" in response to an analyst's question.

"Apple presumably does not contend that its past and current CEOs made false statements regarding those other app stores to thousands of investors in earnings calls," Amazon said. "To the contrary, the use of the term 'app store' to refer to stores selling apps is commonplace in the industry and not a false statement."

Apple filed its original complaint against Amazon in March 2011, alleging that the "Amazon Appstore for Android" name violated Apple's "App Store" trademark. Amazon dropped "for Android" part from its app store moniker late last year with the addition of the Kindle Fire tablet.

The Cupertino firm in 2008 filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to register the "App Store" mark, but the request never went through, since the PTO allowed those who objected to speak their mind, kicking off a legal battle between Microsoft and Apple, and eventually, Amazon.

Apple has tried to trademark its music app icon, but it lost an appeal last week when a judge found that it is too similar to a trademark owned by Myspace.

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