A Brazilian company attacks Apple, claiming to have registered the name “iPhone” before the giant of the smartphone.
Brazilian company IGB Eletrônica (also known as Gradiente) registered the “Gradiente iPhone” trademark in 2000, seven years before Apple’s first iPhone came out.
Gradiente iPhone, smartphone Android
Problem, it took eight years for the registration of the mark to be accepted. This did not prevent the company from releasing an Android smartphone called Gradiente iPhone in 2012, naturally triggering the ire of Apple’s lawyers and their obtaining from the Brazilian regulator the cancellation of the registered trademark for this smartphone.
Apple too strong for Brazilian law?
Gradiente then lost his mark, and took the case to Brazil’s supreme court in 2020. No date has been set for the trial, but Brazil’s attorney general ‑Augusto Aras-
‑ sided with Apple, explaining that because of the “surrounding context” ‑ ie Apple’s current dominance of the global market‑ the rights to the name “iPhone” cannot be granted to whoever registered it first. Bad luck… Source: Channel News
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