Apple has lost their legal claim to the iPhone name in Mexico

[xxMATTGxx]

Apple may have solved their trademark problems in China, but it appears they may have a bigger problem on its hands south of the U.S. border, as a court in Mexico City has denied an injunction that would have allowed Apple to continue to sell under the iPhone brand because it violates the trademarks of iFone, a Mexican telecommunications company. The ruling could have a major impact on Apple’s phone sales in Mexico, as well as affecting the marketing and sales plans of several wireless service providers in the country, some of which were gearing up to offer the iPhone 5 to customers this weekend.

It’s not actually clear what Apple was thinking this time around – the iFone trademark was filed in Mexico in 2003, a full four years before Apple filed to trademark the iPhone. Despite the rather obvious priority issue, Apple decided to sue iFone in 2009 in an attempt to invalidate the company’s name for being too similar to the iPhone. The predictable response was a countersuit by iFone, and the court battles have been swinging in iFone’s favor ever since.

The move could prove costly to Apple in more ways than one. In addition to losing the ability to sell devices under the iPhone trademark in Mexico, iFone is also suing for damages for past infringement, asking for a minimum of 40% of all iPhone sales to date in the Mexican market. While those numbers aren’t nearly as large as they are in the U.S., it still would represent a substantial payment. It's not yet clear whether the embargo on using the iPhone name will go into effect before sales of the iPhone 5 start on Friday, or if this will trigger Apple to loosen the purse strings to negotiate a settlement with iFone, but given the circumstances it would seem that Apple has precious little leverage this time around.

Clearly lawsuits can be a double-edged sword.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-has-lost-their-legal-claim-to-the-iPhone-name-in-Mexico_id36199


Doesn't always go the way Apple want it to go eh? :P

[sex]

meh its mexico who cares lol..... apple where doing the whole "i" thing way before "iFone" so it shouldn't really affected them, its stupid if they lose their trademark in mexico or whatever will happen lol

[HotelUser]

This is as stupid as the lawsuit against Microsoft for the tile patent (http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=763239).

[GommeInc]

meh its mexico who cares lol..... apple where doing the whole "i" thing way before "iFone" so it shouldn't really affected them, its stupid if they lose their trademark in mexico or whatever will happen lol
Judging by the court statement, iFone was trademarked four years before iPhone, so the Mexican company behind the name iFone had it before Apple :P

A tedious court case really. I'm not sure about you lot, but I can tell the difference between the words iFone and iPhone, and not just one is a letter down on the other.

[lawrawrrr]

If iFone were around before apple I don't know how they're going to get out of this - even if they're not spelt the same, they sound exactly the same!!

It is so pathetic that all these court cases against the big companies, it's just for a bit of promotion for their companies and money from one of these giants.

[sex]

Judging by the court statement, iFone was trademarked four years before iPhone, so the Mexican company behind the name iFone had it before Apple :P

A tedious court case really. I'm not sure about you lot, but I can tell the difference between the words iFone and iPhone, and not just one is a letter down on the other.

Yeah i know that but im talking about apple doing "i" ipod, imac etc before this ifone lol. S they obviously copied their "i" thing in hopes probably hoping for the success of the ipod or whatvever :P

[GommeInc]

Yeah i know that but im talking about apple doing "i" ipod, imac etc before this ifone lol. S they obviously copied their "i" thing in hopes probably hoping for the success of the ipod or whatvever :P
You'd be surprised :P It's quite common to put 'i' in front of things. There was an iPhone before all of these Apple iDevices - I think it was one of the big networking companies, like CISCO who had it. Saying they did it because Apple had the iPod is speculation really, as people can tell the difference between iPod and iFone :P Seeing as back then internet devices were growing in popularity, using 'i' in a name was and is common place - similar to using 'e' to say it's electronic.

Besides, I would hope people can tell the difference between iFone and iPhone. And this company clearly isn't suing Apple, unlike the Microsoft case where a small, possibly patent-troll company was suing Microsoft despite the fact they've been using tiles in their OS and devices for quite a few years now.

[wixard]

remember when people had their habbo names like 'iTara'
i didn't....but people did....

[HotelUser]

Judging by the court statement, iFone was trademarked four years before iPhone, so the Mexican company behind the name iFone had it before Apple :P

A tedious court case really. I'm not sure about you lot, but I can tell the difference between the words iFone and iPhone, and not just one is a letter down on the other.

GommeInc just made a post which doesn't completely smash Apple in the face? Who are you and what have you done with the real Gomme?

[GommeInc]

GommeInc just made a post which doesn't completely smash Apple in the face? Who are you and what have you done with the real Gomme?
Apple were the instigators in this case, so yeah they're still stupid for thinking they could win the case :P The article does say "Despite the rather obvious priority issue, Apple decided to sue iFone in 2009 in an attempt to invalidate the company’s name for being too similar to the iPhone." The people behind iFone, like Samsung, counter-sued.

[peteyt]

If iFone were around before apple I don't know how they're going to get out of this - even if they're not spelt the same, they sound exactly the same!!

It is so pathetic that all these court cases against the big companies, it's just for a bit of promotion for their companies and money from one of these giants.

Yet it was Apple who did the suing not the people behind the iPhone.

Apple seems to think anything with i, pod etc is theirs when the truth is the words have been used far before steve jobs was even born. Apple needs to calm down on these court cases. It seems to think because its apple it stands a good chance but as its been finding lately it often isn't the case.