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Apple Loses Trademark Claim Against iFone in Mexico
sfcrazy writes "Apple is having trouble in Mexico right before the holiday season. The company has lost rights to the name iPhone in the country, as it was already owned by a Mexican telecom company called iFone (Google translation of Spanish original). iFone registered its trademark in 2003, four years before Apple iPhone was launched. In 2009, Apple filed a complaint with the Mexican Industrial Property Institute demanding that iFone stop using is name because it could confuse users. That claim was since denied, and iFone is looking to turn the tables."
...as Samsung quickly buys out iFone.
For "defensive IP," of course.
... Steve Jobs was supposed to be a "driven", "detail oriented" guy. Whoops! How do you NOT handle a basic trademark situation in a country as large as Mexico for EIGHT YEARS since you began developing the iPhone? Did he ever hear of one of the richest guys in the world - Carlos Slim - who made his fortune SELLING PHONE SERVICE IN MEXICO???
Long ago, they should have just put in a copyright request for i* - paving the way in the future for the iTV, the iE-Cig, the iCar, etc...
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
When it comes to Apple, never attribute to incompetence what can be better explained by malice.
I worked at cisco in the early 90's and I remember a time when we had a corp lawyer come in and give us some guidance on what to do about patents and how this should affect us, the coders.
their answer: don't look, just code! if you look and find, you are guilty if you continue along, but if you never knew about such and such, you were told to stop but not found guilty.
we were surprised but this was the 'high powered lawyer' telling us the official cisco line, back then (back when it was all of 3 buildings up in menlo park.)
maybe apple is doing the same; not fully researching and then hoping they can get a 'well, we TRIED but we might have missed a few; but we meant well' ruling.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Has there ever been a trademark infringement lawsuit, where the defendants had both been using the trademark in the market and had originated it before the plaintiffs, and where the plaintiffs won the case?
I seem to recall that in the late 60's some 'popular beat combo' going by the strange name of 'The Beatles' had a music production company called 'Apple'.
They tried to sue an upstart popular IT company of the same name and lost because that IT company was not in the music business... In fact, as part of the settlement they each signed an agreement that they would not use their trademarks in competing businesses.
If you research the followup on that, where Apple music inc. tried to enforce that agreement years later when iTunes launched, I think you will find your first example of how this can happen.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
As a follow on, Apple now owns the Beatles Apple Corps logo.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/10/the-beatles-apple-corps-logo-is-now-a-registered-tm-of-apple.html
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Ooh ok, they didn't lose, they just failed to win. .sig really.
- My bad, here was I thinking that the purpose of the competition was to win. Shoulda read my own
As to your last paragraph; I'll simply ask if you read what the GtGrandparent post said:
it's just the modus operandi of the adversarial legal system, the lawyers will latch on to any small detail, or whatever in the hopes of making a successful case, no matter how compelling the oppositions evidence is
?
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes