Slashdot Mirror
Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android
Andy Prough writes "If you happen to be in Brazil and have 599 reals jingling in your pocket ($304 US dollars or £196), you can buy an iPhone — that runs Android. Gradiente Electronica, which registered the 'iPhone' name in Brazil in 2000, has won the right to sell its iPhone Neo One, an Android phone running version 2.3, Gingerbread. Gradiente won the ruling from the Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), despite Apple's argument that Gradiente should lose the right to 'iPhone' because it had not used the name between 2008-2012. Apple retains the right to appeal the case, and Gradiente now has the right to sue Apple for exclusivity in Brazil. If Gradiente wins, the only iPhones sold in Brazil would have a picture of a cute green robot on the box cover."
When are the Americans going to invade Brazil?
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
The company registered the trademark before Apple even thought about launching the iPhone, and produced the physical product to go with it. Good on them. If Apple really cared about the Brazilian market, they would have checked up on trademarks as part of due diligence before branding - it's not like Apple hasn't had bad experiences with trademark issues before.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Every now and then, an event occurs that should not [but does] fill one's heart with joy — mainly because of a universal form of justice being executed. This is one of those moments.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
People are going to be buying these iPhones under the impression they are the product Apple produces. This is exactly what trademarks are intended to prevent - one product being passed off as another and the consumer unwittingly being fooled into buying something they don't want.
It's true that there's no good solution to the fact that somebody can register a trademark locally then get steamrollered by a massive multinational, but this is just a complete failure of trademark law - this ruling allows the very thing that trademarks are intended to prevent.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
This is the most amusing thing that I've seen all week. :)
Why add the "Neo One" to the name? You just won a case for a very valuable name in the electronics industry, why go adding extra crap to to let people know that it isn't really an iPhone? If you have no intention of trying to "trick" people into thinking it is an iPhone, why not just sell the name to Apple for what ever you can get? Just go all in and claim it is an iPhone period. Or get some balls release 4 models really quick and claim it is the iPhone 5.
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
First, why not sell the name to Apple?
Because Apple most likely isn't willing to pay what Gradiente wants. Apple has a track record for engaging in long and useless "negotiations" in Brazil. Years ago they wanted the right to set the pace within the App Store (defining age ratings for apps), and the Brazilian government didn't want that. Here the government decides that kind of stuff and Apple thought it wasn't an option, so the end result was that the App Store in Brazil was really shitty for years. Only a few games (those made by Brazilian developers) were available, many other apps were missing. Which even led to people coming up with ways to register their accounts in other countries' stores just to have access to apps they couldn't get here.
Apple also exploits the market here. Brazilians have this retarded idea that more expensive = better. An unlocked iPhone 5 starts at U$U$650 in the US (today that would be ~R$1300 in Brazil). The Brazilian government imposes the highest and most nonsensical volume of taxes in the world, but Apple starts the iPhone 4S (iPhone 5 isn't even selling here officially yet) at R$2000. Carriers have been offering pre-orders for the iPhone 5 starting at around R$2600 with an expensive plan, or around R$3100 without one. It is believed that Apple itself will sell them in the R$2400-3000 range once it's officially released here.
With those things in mind, the result is very likely that Apple wouldn't settle for a value Gradiente wanted.
The second point is about the name.. They (Gradiente) very likely went with something slightly different for the case Apple eventually does decide on paying for the trademark. In that case, Gradiente's trouble with getting around "iPhone Neo One" should be slightly less complicated than simply "iPhone".
I'm not sure why someone in the West would *willingly* buy a counterfeit except for the novelty or self esteem issues. I expect they're popular items with criminal gangs and fraudsters though.
Also, even if Apple doesn't own the iPhone name in Brazil, that doesn't mean someone can legally palm off an "iPhone" which rips off the real iPhone so brazenly.
4 years is a reasonable timeframe for bringing an idea to market and should have no effect on the case against them. poor apple. hahahahahaha
Really Android 2.3? Epic fail.
The only thing newsworthy is the fact that he can use the name iPhone for what looks like is a completely mediocre china phone.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Apple is just going to buy their entire company. Minus one competitive Smartphone, and you've solved a brand problem.
They've have gone to extraordinary lengths to make them resemble the iPhone
No they haven't. I personally find the iPhone design somewhat dated now, but it is distinctive. These phones look like mid-priced Huawei Android phones, It even has Android buttons on the front. The interface looks more like stock android...including widget layer...the iPhone needs to update their UI too....its not 2007 anymore.
Its an attractive phone...and personally love the striking [and decidedly not Apple like] two tone casing, at this price; a fraction of the Apple iphone...its a steal. Its a phone I could see myself owning.
This [...] does little to rehabilitate the world view of Brazil as a haven for the theft of intellectual property either.
Apparently, Gradiente Electronica made a product with the name iPhone in 2000. If Apple could stop them from using that name simply because Apple started making a phone by the same name later, THAT would have shown that Brazil was a have for intellectual property "theft", or, more correctly, trade mark infringement.
Nah, just release it as iPhone 6, and claim the iPhone 1-5 were internal prototypes if asked.
I think the point is so unlike Apples market-share losing strategy of producing only one iphone at a time. I suspect they will create a product line...like every other company on the planet.
The only thing newsworthy is the fact that he can use the name iPhone for what looks like is a completely mediocre china phone.
The irony of this post hurts my brain.
The law suit was against Apple iTunes.
There was never a problem until Apple decided to get into the music business.
I don't mean to correct you, wikipedia has a nice history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer the short version of it, as part of the original *settlement* they agreed not to get into to music...and then they did.
Actually, we just want iPhones like everybody else.
Actually we want Android phones...its why Apple only have 0.4% of the Brazilian Market. http://www.statista.com/statistics/245189/market-share-of-mobile-operating-systems-for-smartphone-sales-in-brazil/ compared to Androids 56%
Gradiente: Just change the name, not that big of a deal.
Apple: Grr, Jobs and his big mouth.
Most people aren't as knowledgable about technology as the average Slashdotter. They aren't stupid just because they confuse a phone called "iPhone" that has a full-size touchscreen, rounded corners, camera, and the ability to run apps with a phone called "iPhone" that has a full-size touchscreen, rounded corners, camera, and the ability to run apps. Your analogy with the fruit is ridiculous.
If those are the only features that an iPhone sells on, then it deserves its shrinking maketshare[and value], and their is nothing to differentiate it as a product...it is simply a brand. Suddenly Apple fanatics, and Google fanatics are on the same page; holding hands; singing "we are the world".
they did not DEFEND the trademark for the first 5 years
Are you a Brazilian lawyer? If not, how do you know Brazilian trade mark law requires that?
The decision to deny Apple the use of the iPhone trade mark was made by the Brazilian federal agency for intellectual property, one must assume they know what they are doing.
Will be nice to see a small company win against a big one. Apple, like Google, needs to be taken back a bit, even if by force of law. Choice has become Android or iPhone. Not really a real choice of operating systems. I'm hoping Firefox and Ubuntu phones are so cheap and so popular they can put a severe dent in the 800 lb. gorillas.
Captcha: contempt (lol)
It is a genuine iPhone.
Apple's iPhone would, in Brazil, be the fake iPhone.
Linksys' iPhone makes the Apple iPhone the fake iPhone.
And this iPhone is not pretending to be the Apple iPhone, therefore is not a fake Apple iPhone.
Brazil imposes duties on imported electronics totaling over 100 percent of the retail price.
I have precisely zero interest in software updates for a phone, as long as it keeps working the same as when I bought it.
Except it won't "keep[] working the same as when [you] bought it." Security vulnerabilities might be discovered in the operating system. Web sites might start relying on features that the phone's browser doesn't support, such as new JavaScript APIs in the HTML5 stable, and showing you an error message when they fail to detect it. Or they might start relying on features that the operating system's SSL stack doesn't support, such as Server Name Indication (SNI), which is required for name-based virtual hosting of multiple customers' SSL sites, and showing you a certificate error when your browser asks for "first certificate on this IP address" rather than "certificate for pineight.com". SNI is becoming increasingly important in the era of Firesheep and IPv4 address exhaustion, and Android didn't get support for it until Honeycomb (3.0) on tablets and Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) on phones.
The plural of "real" is "reais", not "reals".
Cya.
Apple produces the previous generations of its existing product line, such as the iPhone 4 and 4S for Virgin Mobile, at the same time as the current generation for full-price carriers.
Thats not a product line :), and all it is did was cannibalise the iphone5 sales in the *US* adding to Apples woes on the stock market. It clearly didn't help is sell more phones in Brazil or China...you know those massive markets experiencing all the smatphone growth right now; Where your expected to pay outright for a phones; where Android already is not just the leader its over 100X market share in Brazil...and last time I looked 21x in China. The iPhone is simply too cheap a product with too high a mark-up [A mark up so high *nobody* will buy one], to be successful in those markets. Apple had a chance, but it squandered it chasing profits, engaging in frivolous lawsuits, rather than cementing its [Mindshare at least] lead with a affordable range of products...and innovating, a new UI every so often wouldn't hurt.
Probably the best iPhone that works :)
That chart is pretty interesting. Android is winning market share by stealing it from Symbian...No noticeable uptick in windows devices.
Users do not want windows phone, and increasingly I'm finding little compelling about the current Nokia hardware. I used to say put Android on Nokia Hardware, but I'm not sure if Android will make a difference any more.
I don't know if bananas grow in the ME, or not. But, we ain't over there to steal bananas.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Rather than trying to trick people into thinking that they are selling an Apple iPhone?
Apple's success in cell phones wasn't because they were so good at naming them.
I started to read this article, then i caught myself.
I am on an indefinite boycott of all apple-related info. I just don't care and I'm not going to spend my time learning or listening to anything else about them.
I suggest everyone else do them same, for the their own good mental health. peace and good luck.
That is a lot of phones! Like one for everybody!
America should tread lightly in this situation. What if Brazil refuses to sell Brazilians in America anymore? The horror..
FYI, here's the original original
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
If anything, I'd rather run iOS on an android device! WHY the heck would someone wanna run android on an iPhone? :)
Oh wait, I couldn't run iOS on an android device.... I forgot.... I would never buy an android phone in the FIRST place
Sent from my iPhone
Gradiente cant make a better phone. They used to make good stuff, but that was 15 years ago. They went bankrupt, lost all engineering teams, and now they can just do the China dance.
Which samsung does better anyway, and sells very nice, very unsafe, utterly marketroid phones with android inside.
If you look into the story of the Brazilian iPhone, you'll see that the original one was nothing more than an unlicensed knockoff of a Nokia, including a ripped-off Nokia ROM.
Will their next phone be called Iphone Sosumi?
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
How is a potential copyright dispute with Nokia relevant to a trademark dispute with Apple 12 years later?
My point is that Brazil is the place where IP theft occurs. Not specifically anything regarding Apple or Nokia per se. They are also notorious for ripping off drug patents.
It's great to see the balls Gradiente has to stand up to a controversial company, but I still think Apple deserves the right to the name iPhone. Hopefully this will only be a fluke.