Apple Loses iPhone Trademark In Brazil

You might be sitting atop a pile of cash that would take far too many lifetimes to spend, and your company’s stock, while battered for a bit, is still the envy of many other companies out there, but regardless of the apparent power that you seemingly wield in the tech world, you will still not gain an inch from Brazil’s copyright regulator. Yes sir, I am referring to Apple Inc. being stripped of the right to use their iPhone trademark in Brazil, which so happens to be Latin America’s largest market, as the trademark was granted instead to a local company which registered it first.

Never heard of Gradiente Eletronica SA before? Well, this Brazilian consumer electronics maker is sure to get a whole lot more famous from now on, as they registered the “iphone” name all the way back in the year 2000, a good seven years before Apple actually rolled out their first iPhone. The Brazilian Institute of Intellectual Property will make an official announcement of its decision a day before Valentine’s Day. Needless to say, we are not ruling out the possibility of Apple challenging the ruling in the Brazilian court.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apple Inc, iPhone, trademark