Brazilian company wins right to use iPhone name
It's not your Apple's iPhone.
A Brazilian company has begun
selling smartphones in Brazil with the iPhone brand after winning the
legal right to use the name in Latin America's biggest country.
Adding insult to Apple Inc.'s injury, the phone runs on the Android operating system from archrival Google Inc.
Gradiente SA said in a statement
that it filed its request to use the iPhone brand in 2000 when it
realised “there would be a technological revolution in the world of
cellphones with the convergence of voice and data transmission and
reception via mobile Internet.”
In 2008 Brazil's government gave Gradiente the right to use the brand on its cellphones.
Brazilian trademark office
spokeswoman Maratan Marques said Gradiente requested permission to use
the brand before Apple did and has the exclusive right to use it through
2018.
Brazil
Apple spokeswoman Maria Parra Rodriguez said the company had no
immediate comment. Phone calls and emails to Apple Inc.'s headquarters
in California went unanswered.
Gradiente said on its website that it started selling its iPhone on Tuesday for 600 reals ($300).
It runs the relatively old 2.3
version of Android and its features include a 3.7-inch touch-sensitive
screen, Bluetooth, dual chip capability, 3G, Wi-Fi and camera. Its
appearance is similar to that of Apple's iPhone.
The Brazilian company said it did
not use the iPhone name until now because its “priority was to conclude a
corporate restructuring process that ended earlier this year.”
“In Brazil, Gradiente has the
exclusive right to use the iPhone brand,” the statement said. “This
company will adopt all the measures used by companies around the world
to preserve its intellectual property rights.”
A company official said Apple had
not contacted Gradiente and she didn't know of any attempt by Apple to
contest Gradiente's use of the iPhone name.
The
executive, who insisted on speaking anonymously because she was not
authorised to speak to the press, added that she did not know if
Gradiente would try to stop Apple iPhone sales in Brazil.
Major cellphone operators and retail outlets advertised Apple iPhones on their websites Wednesday. - Sapa-AP
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