iPhone loses trademark battle against iFone of Mexico
iPhone a bully and a loser.
Apple Inc. has been showing its aggresiveness to the limit by looking all possible means to protect its legal patent rights but once again Apple found a dose of its greediness.
iFone, a Mexican telecommunications firm has declared victory in a trademark battle with Apple’s iPhone, exposing the US company to a potential compensation payment.
So what was the story behind between these two giant companies?
In 2007, four years after the Mexican telecom services and systems company says it registered the name iFone, Apple introduced the iPhone brand to the Mexican market.
In 2009, iFone sued the California-based company because of similar-sounding names which caused confusion. And
recently, according to the Mexican firm a court denied Apple’s bid to protect the iPhone name.
“It is the third time that Apple loses and this demonstrates the legal truth: iFone is within its full right to use its brand,” the statement said.
The lawyer for iFone, Eduardo Gallart, was quoted as saying in Milenio newspaper on Saturday that Apple will have to compensate the Mexican company for the use of the iPhone name.
An amount has not been decided but Gallart said the law sets a floor rate of 40 percent of the sale price of a service that is found to have violated the rules.
A message to Apple’s media relations office was not returned.
Source: PDI news