JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Apple's iPhone loses name battle with Mexico's iFone

Apple's iPhone loses name battle with Mexico's iFone

Monday, November 05, 2012, 12:04 GMT+7

A Mexican telecommunications firm named iFone has declared victory in a trademark battle with Apple's iPhone, exposing the US company to a potential compensation payment.

The Mexican firm said in a statement that a court denied Apple's bid to protect the iPhone name in a case that began in 2009, when iFone sued the California-based company because the similar-sounding names caused confusion.

Apple introduced the iPhone to the Mexican market in 2007, four years after the Mexican telecom services and systems company says it registered the name iFone.

"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.

AFP

More

Read more

;

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Latest news