Defending a trademark and obtaining its world-wide exclusive rights is not easy for anyone, not even for Apple. A dispute occurred in China between Cupertino’s company and Proview from Shenzhen that registered the iPad trademark before Apple. After years fighting in court, everything came to an agreement in July 2012 when Apple bought the Chinese trademark paying 60 million dollars.
Now what worries Cupertino is the trademark “iPhone” that took a severe knock in Mexico where the Apple didn’t manage to void the trademark “iFone” which was registered for communication services but not for mobile phones. Despite being defeated, Apple will be able to keep selling its own phones, therefore the damage is contained.
However, the situation is even worse in Brazil. The company Gradiente has filed the trademark “iPhone” for mobile phones since 2000 and has obtained it in 2008. Actually the registration had been done, and certainly they regret it, for the trademark C Gradiente Iphone, but it’s unavoidable that this bothers Cupertino.
Concerning this, the IGB Eletronica SA, that acquired Gradiente, has announced in a recent press release a new line of mobile phones “iPhone” pointing out that they can use the trademark being the only owner in Brazil.
The first model of this line is Neo One that, as a twist of fate, a white or black smartphone, with touch screen, called iPhone but with Android.
This situation could get worse if IGB decided to prevent the american iPhones to access the brazilian market using the exclusive rights granted by the registration. It’s not clear what it intends to do, but their intentions do not seem to be peaceful anymore. The people in charge at IGB complain stating that Apple have treated them with little respect and that they don’t need its money, even if there is a strong suspicion that, behind this launch during the Christmas time, IGB aims to come to an agreement with Apple.