Firm Owning 'IPHONE' Trademark in Brazil Open to Selling Mark to Apple
Brazilian electronics maker IGB Electronica SA, which owns the trademark to 'IPHONE' in Brazil, has said it is willing to discuss selling the trademark to Apple following the launch of a line of Android phones bearing the 'IPHONE' mark in that country.
Bloomberg reports:
The owner of the iPhone trademark in Brazil, IGB Eletronica SA, said it would consider selling the naming rights to Apple Inc.
“We’re open to a dialogue for anything, anytime,” said Eugenio Emilio Staub, chairman of IGB, in an interview in Sao Paulo. “We’re not radicals.”
Brazil's Institute for Industrial Property confirmed this week that IGB has exclusive rights to the 'iphone' mark as it relates to mobile phones. Apple had requested exclusive use of the word in 2006, but the request was not granted because IGB's trademark dated back to 2000.
Apple has sold the iPhone in Brazil for several years, but with this ruling it appears Apple will need to negotiate with IGB for the right to use the 'iPhone' mark. A similar situation occurred in China last year. Proview Technology owned the Chinese trademark to "iPad" and eventually sold the mark to Apple for $60 million.
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Top Rated Comments
Mess? They owned this trademark years before iPhone existed. How are they messing with Apple?
Not all countries are the US
In some countries you have to have RIGHT to win. Not money.
It's not always a "clear cut win" for "Apple and its lawyers".
They can't afford it.
I don't think paying 100 top lawyers is gonna be cheaper than paying Gradiente for a license anyway. :D
By the way, those able to read in Portuguese should check the following link:
http://www.ie.ufrj.br/desenvolvimento/pdfs/novos_espacos_de_possibilidade_para_a_inovacao_tecnologica.pdf
It's a paper analyzing the Unitron case, when a well-known Brazilian company produced a Mac clone (the "Mac 512") through perfectly-legal reverse engineering means (i.e., no Apple patent in Brazil).
However, strong pressure from the US government + corporate lobbying from competing companies in Brazil made the military government backtrack from its original decision to allow the company to produce such clones - it's a fascinating story.
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What "stuff"? A few iPhones by Foxconn?
Brazil is the 5th (or 6th, depending on who you ask) largest economy in the world; the US is not even its largest trading partner anymore.
On the other hand, Brazilian tourists are the ones spending the most money of all nationalities in places like NY.
So it's more like this nowadays, given the dire state of the US economy: Brazil asks, the US concedes - not the other way round.