Apple may be close to coming to agreement with the Brazilian company that owns the rights to the name iPhone in that country.
Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo newspaper has reported that Apple and IGB Eletronica, the parent company of Gradiente, have “decided to stop the court fight” and are looking to reach an agreement over the trademark iPhone.
The companies are said to be seeking a “peaceful settlement”. The court case has been suspended for 30 days, according to our translation of Folha de São Paulo’s report.
Gradiente registered the name iPhone back in 2000, seven years before the iPhone launched in 2007. That company released an Android iPhone in Brazil last year.
Apple argued that Gradiente had left it too late to release a product using the trademarked name. However the Brazilian National Industrial Property Institute ruled that Gradiente owned the name as they had registered it earlier. Apple is still allowed to use the brand name.
According to the report, the two companies have been looking for a solution to the problem outside of court.
Apple has previously settled with a Chinese company that owned the right to the iPad trademark. Apple paid Proview $60 million last year. The company also came to an agreement with Cisco over the use of the name iPhone in the US.
Apple is having a bad time in Brazil. The company is also being sued for launching the fourth generation iPad so soon after the third generation ‘New iPad’. If Apple loses the suit it may be forced to compensate iPad 3 owners in the country.
Via Forbes.
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Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld almost two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.