“Apple has been granted the right to use the iPhone brand in Brazil, overturning a previous ruling from Brazilian intellectual property institute INPI which granted exclusive rights to local electronics manufacturer Gradiente, according to press reports,” Pedro Ozores reports for BNamericas. “The decision was issued by a court in Rio de Janeiro.”
“Apple had appealed INPI’s ruling arguing that Gradiente’s right over the iPhone name should have expired, as the Brazilian firm did not trade any products under that name in the five years after it was granted ownership. INPI granted Gradiente the patent in January 2008,” Ozores reports. “Gradiente launched its iPhone device in December 2012, less than a month before the patent was due to expire, as stated by Brazilian laws. Gradiente filed for the rights to the iPhone brand in Brazil 12 years ago, well before Apple’s iPhone launch.”
Ozores reports, “The judge claimed, among other things, that the iPhone brand gained visibility due to the worldwide success of Apple’s device and that INPI should have considered the market context before conceding exclusive rights to Gradiente. The judge also ruled in his decision that Gradiente’s name was just the combination of ‘internet’ and ‘phone,’ referring to a mobile phone with internet access, while Apple already had an extensive ‘i’ product line, registered in several countries. IGB said it will appeal the decision.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple wins. Again.
Related articles:
Apple moves closer to resolving Brazilian iPhone trademark dispute – March 11, 2013
Apple loses iPhone trademark exclusivity in Brazil, must share with Gradiente Eletronica; Apple lodges appeal – February 14, 2013
iPhone trademark owner in Brazil ‘open’ to selling rights to Apple – February 5, 2013
Analyst: Apple likely to buy right to use iPhone brand in Brazil – December 27, 2012
IGB to sell ‘IPHONE’ brand of Android phones in Brazil – December 18, 2012
A rare win in courts stacked against it.
This is case where court right by letter and merit because:
“Gradiente filed for the rights to the iPhone brand in Brazil 12 years ago, well before Apple’s iPhone launch.”
Gradiente filed iPhone mark after Apple marketed iMac and iPod. So it was obvious TM-squatting — just like with iPad TM in China.
Sensibility in Brazil wins. Which goes far to say good things about Brazil’s legal system more than anything else.
INPI inability to see a global market = Fail
Company which tries to profit off Apple’s gains = Fail
Apple shouldn’t have had to “win” something in the first place.
Give me a break. They have been trying for 12 years to gain exclusive rights to that name. If they tried for 12 years, Why haven’t they been using iPhone for 12 or even 11 years on a product that relates to IP Phone technology, only to come out with something, perhaps a photo of a phone called iPhone, within 1 month of the statute of limitations.
They were waiting for Apple, to come along, so they can suckle at it’s stem, for anything they could conceivably not off the verbal tree.
Damn right. Apple is a bigger deal than that entire nation. It’s about time they listened to a company that’s a bigger deal than their country
Are you trying to pull off an Ian Brandon Anderson, because if you are, you are failing at it.
So, what name was Apple using in Brazil up to now?
And how many iPhones did Gradiente sell?
Wow, a judge using logic and reason. Kudos for Brazil!
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Good news for Apple indeed.
Like when the iPhone was going to be launched in the US it came to light that some other company owner the name, I think. Was it Cisco? Anyway they releases some landline phone I think with the brand iPhone. But I guess Apple won the right to the name too. We know iOS is licensed from Cisco at least. Maybe it was Netgear that released I phone with the iPhone name or maybe Linksys which Cisco owns.
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