Apple could lose the iPhone copyright in Brazil

[RaduTyrsina]

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Apple’s road to introduce its iPhone into the borders of Brazil has been a bumpy one from the start. And according to a new report, things are about to get even more complicated.

Now, the tech giant seems to be having problem retaining its iPhone trademark. The Brazilian Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) ruled against Apple’s plea of getting full legal “custody” of the word “iPhone”. Problems started around the iPhone brand when the Brazilian tech manufacturing company Gradiente released a smartphone entitled IPHONE, which sports Android as the operating system.

To make matters even worse, it turns out that Gradiente has filed a request with the same INPI to trademark the iPhone brand all the way back in 2000. That places the request way before the first Apple smartphone was released on the American market. In 2008, Gradiente was granted the exclusivity of owning the name by the INPI, which basically prohibits Apple to use the word for advertising purposes within the country.

Apple too filed a request with the INPI years before, in 2006, but that request was never granted because Gradiente beat Cupertino to it. However, the company was granted the use of the word in marketing and instruction manuals. We’re pretty sure Apple is not happy with the outcome and will certainly try its best to do something about it.

Apple is not new to the situation. Back in the day it acquired exclusivity rights to the word iPhone from the American firm Cisco and for the iPad word from the Proview company in China.

Source: Reuters