Brazilian company announces ‘IPHONE’ brand of Android phones
December 20, 2012 4
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Brazilian company IGB Electronica SA has an announcement that might make your head spin: a new line of Android phones under the brand name “IPHONE.” Now how are they getting away with something like this?
The company apparently applied for exclusive rights to the IPHONE name in Brazil back in 2000, way before the first iPhone from Apple ever came out. This is similar to the situation Apple encountered in China, where Proview owned the trademark for the iPad name and Apple had to shell out $60 million to gain control of it.
The first model under the IPHONE brand in Brazil will supposedly be called the “Neo One,” but it remains to be seen if Apple will actually allow that to happen. A lawsuit or settlement attempt from Apple is most likely incoming.
[via MacRumors]
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HD-DVD Decryption Key is a patented number…
Wonder if I can get my hands on Apples bank account number and pattent that… then they can pay me per transaction…
But seriously you’ve got to love the speed of how fast people will register things to either annoy or make a profit…
Everyone is equal before the law, and there’s no reason why Apple or any other big name should get things their way when it comes to brand names, let alone ‘allow’ things to happen ! Especially if they came to the party late with regards to the iPhone name, as seems to be the case here. If this company truly did register this name in 2000, where-as the first Apple iPhone came to market only in 2007, and since this company appears not to be a patent troll, but a legitimate phone manufacturer, we may indeed ask the opposite question : Should Apple not be paying THEM for infringing on THAT company’s IPhone name ?
Actually, Gradiente started as radio producer, then a toy factory, then expanded to produce tape and voice recorders, then to stereo sound systems and TVs.
Around the 2000s it decided to produce phones, trying to compete with Palm in Brazilian market
They did registered that brand iphone at that time, but the production line didnt came out of the paper if I recall corretly.
@Louis: They haven’t done anything with the trademark until now though. I guess that’s why we’re seeing news about it.