Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-phone-by-any-other-name dept.

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."

50 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Apple lost in court by Noughmad · · Score: 5, Funny

    When are the Americans going to invade Brazil?

    --
    PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
    1. Re:Apple lost in court by azalin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Time to include Brazil in the "War on Drugs" (R)

    2. Re:Apple lost in court by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I hope you realize that foreigners don't patriotically salute the American flag, and may even be overjoyed that this company stood up to an overbearing American company.

    3. Re:Apple lost in court by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2

      But brazilians are americans...

      I thought they were a kind of haircut.

    4. Re:Apple lost in court by famazza · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If Apple stops selling the iPhone in Brazil, there will be massive illegal import paying no taxes for government. Maybe this is the most intelligent movement for Apple at the moment. Brazilian government won't accept such a loss of tax income and will provide a "legal" solution for Apple.

      --

      -=-=-=-=
      I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
    5. Re:Apple lost in court by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Legal solution; rebrand your product.
      It's not uncommon: Opel/Vauxhall, Axe/Lynx.
      Why should Apple get special treatment?

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    6. Re:Apple lost in court by fredprado · · Score: 3, Informative

      The illegal import in iPhones, which is not very significant, won't likely be affected at all.

    7. Re:Apple lost in court by daem0n1x · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So you think Brazilian government should subvert its own country's legal system to benefit an American private company? I like the way you think, it's so... Banana Republic.

      Have you read the news in the latest decades? Some things have changed, you know?

    8. Re:Apple lost in court by dougisfunny · · Score: 4, Funny

      You might need a merkin if you get a brazilian.

      --
      This is not the funny you're looking for.
    9. Re:Apple lost in court by pjabardo · · Score: 2

      Not middle class Brazilians. Parent post is most probably correct.

    10. Re:Apple lost in court by hjf · · Score: 2

      Opel/Vauxhall and in latin america: Chevrolet.

      My mom had a Chevrolet Meriva, while someone from the UK had a Vauxhall Meriva, and someone from europe had an Opel Meriva.

    11. Re:Apple lost in court by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny

      Opel/Vauxhall and in latin america: Chevrolet.

      My mom had a Chevrolet Meriva, while someone from the UK had a Vauxhall Meriva, and someone from europe had an Opel Meriva.

      The Vauxhall Meriva is the best one, and I say this objectively as a British citizen.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    12. Re:Apple lost in court by iamhassi · · Score: 2

      Overbearing? I agree the world doesn't like all things American, but Apple did completely change the direction of smartphones and tablets and the Internet for the entire world. Without iPhone there would be no Android and "tablets" would still be 4 lbs windows laptops with swivel screens and keyboards. Have to give Apple credit where credit is due.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    13. Re:Apple lost in court by rve · · Score: 2

      I DO think that brazilian legislators are as corrupt as they were 10 years ago (2003) or 15 years ago (1998).

      They will sell themselves so they can have their own Apple iPhones without having to struggle into "popular prices shoppings"

      And Brazil IS still a "Banana Republic". Do you really think that rich people will ever be arrested for driving drunk?

      That is not a banana republic, it's just a place with open corruption. A banana republic is a place that is effectively owned and run by a foreign company that makes the rules for the local government instead of the other way around. The classic example were the Standard Fruit Company and the United Fruit Company, which effectively owned several central American countries during the 20th century.

  2. Looks legit by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
    1. Re:Looks legit by loosescrews · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Cisco made and sold a product they called iPhone before Apple in the US. This didn't stop Apple from selling their iPhone is the US without aquiring the rights.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone

    2. Re:Looks legit by mvar · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was about to post the exact same thing. they settled that lawsuit

    3. Re:Looks legit by Vintermann · · Score: 2

      Apple's use of the naming scheme started with the iMac in 1998, though I'm pretty use the iPrefix was used by others before that... and it's kind of hard to call something a naming scheme when there's only one example.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    4. Re:Looks legit by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2

      It is really not that simple/cheap to check the entire world for trademarks.

      Given the scope of Apple's legal resources, it should be. Especially for a company whose business model seems to involve suing the crap out of everybody rather than actually doing any innovation. And no, making a phone 0.00001 mm thinner than the model they released in 2007 does not count as innovation.

    5. Re:Looks legit by Vintermann · · Score: 4, Informative

      Apple the record company settled with Apple computers for $80000 and a promise that they wouldn't enter each other's respective business domains. The record company got angry when the computer company did just that in 2003 with iTunes.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    6. Re:Looks legit by mabhatter654 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Apple was already working on acquiring rights before release... They were just being held up. Again, Cisco hadn't SOLD the product in several years... It's not up to Apple to know if somebody "maybe might wanna" still use something.

      This Brazillian company had a trademark but NEVER released a product until well after Apple STARTED SELLING iPhones in 2008. If it was so important, they had 5 years to bring the matter up.

    7. Re:Looks legit by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying Brazil isn't an interesting market, but it probably isn't in the top 5.

      Give it time.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:Looks legit by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's just incorrect. I still have a Linksys iPhone I bought the year before or the same year the iPhone was released.

    9. Re:Looks legit by morcego · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm not saying Brazil isn't an interesting market, but it probably isn't in the top 5.

      As far as cell phone are considered, it is.

      --
      morcego
    10. Re:Looks legit by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying Brazil isn't an interesting market, but it probably isn't in the top 5.

      Brazil is the 5th most populous country in the world.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  3. Schadenfreude by Compact+Dick · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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]
    1. Re:Schadenfreude by peragrin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why does this fill your heart with joy?

      a new android phone running yet another OUTDATED version of Android that isn't going to receive any kinds of long term updates.

      This product will be dead in a year. the iphone will keep chugging alone and apple won't have to even try to do anything about it.

      It is running Gingerbread people you should be screaming at this company to get off it's ass and release it with a recent OS.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    2. Re:Schadenfreude by Vintermann · · Score: 2

      It's running Gingerbread in a near-third world country. It has features useful for Brazil (it's dual sim). It's probably a bit on the expensive side, but it's not necessarily underspecced just because it's running gingerbread. Getting the software to support all the hardware reliably is probably the main challenge for this Brazilian company (as it is for my Norwegian one, still waitting for my LTE tab updates, grr)

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    3. Re:Schadenfreude by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Informative

      Brazil isn't even *close* to being a 3rd world country. It' the sixth largest economy in the world, above England and Italy, and just below France. There are some dodgy parts, just like there are dodgy parts of the US.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    4. Re:Schadenfreude by morcego · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's running Gingerbread in a near-third world country. It has features useful for Brazil (it's dual sim). It's probably a bit on the expensive side, but it's not necessarily underspecced just because it's running gingerbread. Getting the software to support all the hardware reliably is probably the main challenge for this Brazilian company (as it is for my Norwegian one, still waitting for my LTE tab updates, grr)

      As a brazilian who is the owner of 3 android phones, I have to say that Gradiente's iPhone will tank. There are much better options here, not to mention cheaper.

      If Gradiente wants to compete in the brazilian cell phone market, they should worry about Samsung and Motorola, not Apple.

      --
      morcego
    5. Re:Schadenfreude by medcalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They are more likely angling for a settlement with Apple than trying to actually compete with other Android phone makers.

      --
      -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
  4. Why the extra name by balsy2001 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  5. Re:This is what trademarks are for by santax · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, this ruling is just what the trademark is about. They were first to claim the name. So they get to use it. The amount of money an infringer on such trademark spends to get people to think they come up with the brand doesn't matter at all.

  6. A couple of points by cseg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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".

    1. Re:A couple of points by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why being forced to sell a name anyway? Gradiente registered the name "iphone" (lower case p) in 2000. At this time, Apple had two iProducts (iMac and iBook), but there was no sight yet of a long chain of i-labelled consumer gadgets from Apple, and an Apple phone wasn't even on the drawing boards. The iPod came in 2001, so Gradiente's registration surely was without any intention to squat on a future, valuable trademark of Apple.
      Within the legal framework of trademark law, the name "iphone" (and all modifications of it, which can be easily confused with the original trademark), is rightfully Gradiente's. It's solely Apple which has a problem here, they tried the courts to solve it, and they lost. So they can beg Gradiente to sell the name to them, or at least get a license to use it, but there is no incentive for Gradiente to agree to any negotiations.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:A couple of points by cseg · · Score: 2

      Yep, you got it mostly right.

      Importation taxing is insane here, and like I said on my previous post, very nonsense. Most stuff fall into this retarded law where at the border, they'll get taxed "to match the price practiced in the country". This law has the limit of R$5000, so anything more expensive than that will have its own separate law for importation.

      The problem is that it makes importing stuff unpredictable unless you have market information to match prices (which by itself is a lot of work for the average person). Not to mention that the final decision is made by the government and thus things can still differ wildly. You can appeal if you think it's wrong/unfair, but that will cost you extra money and most likely a lot of time (justice in Brazil is VERY slow). In the end, most people prefer to just pay whatever overprice they go for in the country, or have someone bring it from overseas (they can bring up to U$1500 in "undocumented personal gadgets" when (re)entrying the country).

      Foxconn built their factory here with that cut in taxes in mind, but the cut never really got to consumers. The 8GB iPhone 4, built in Brazil, is only R$400 (~U$200) less expensive than an iPhone 4S 16GB. Apple does get the phones made in Brazil cheaper than the imported ones, but they simply don't turn that into cheaper final products, which is the exploitation I mentioned in the other post. They like their "elite" status, and the Brazilian market is golden for that.

  7. Re:This is what trademarks are for by oodaloop · · Score: 2

    Or Apple could pick another name, since someone else trademarked iPhone first.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  8. Re:This is what trademarks are for by Bogtha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    this ruling is just what the trademark is about. They were first to claim the name

    What? No, that's not what trademarks are about. From Wikipedia:

    The essential function of a trademark is to exclusively identify the commercial source or origin of products or services, so a trademark, properly called, indicates source or serves as a badge of origin. In other words, trademarks serve to identify a particular business as the source of goods or services.

    Trademarks are for identification purposes. When people buy an iPhone, the trademark is there so that they know when it says "iPhone" on the box, it's the iPhone they are thinking of and not some other product.

    Trademarks have never been land grabs where the first person to claim the name wins. Consider examples like "Escalator". That was originally a trademark, but became generic. Now anybody can make an escalator and call it such.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  9. Re:This is what trademarks are for by Bogtha · · Score: 2

    There are almost 200 countries in the world. Good luck coming up with a short, pronounceable product name that is original in all of them.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  10. Re:This is what trademarks are for by terjeber · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which is why companies name products differently in markets where they were not able to secure the trademark. Sorry, the only travesty here is that Apple can continue to sell products in Brasil under the name iPhone.

  11. The iPhone is made where? by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  12. No no no!!! by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  13. Re:This is what trademarks are for by Vintermann · · Score: 2

    Kodak did pretty well.

    --
    xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  14. Actually we don't Android in Bazil too. :) by tuppe666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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%

    1. Re:Actually we don't Android in Bazil too. :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Kinda wrong.

      Yes, Apple is not selling iPhone 5 in Brazil, but you can buy iPhone 4 and 4S here:

      http://store.apple.com/br/browse/home/shop_iphone

    2. Re:Actually we don't Android in Bazil too. :) by morcego · · Score: 4, Informative

      Apple DOES NOT sell their phones "officially" in Brazil or Argentina (and most of latin america).

      You are wrong. Apple simply doesn't see it directly (their own store).

      Apple phones are sold by at least some of the cell phone companies (operators), and it is quite official.

      --
      morcego
  15. Re:This is what trademarks are for by Bogtha · · Score: 2

    So who do you think the trademark should protect in this case? Apple?

    As I have re-iterated several times in this thread: the consumer.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  16. Brazilian law != US law by mangu · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  17. Re:This is what trademarks are for by 1u3hr · · Score: 2

    People are going to be buying these iPhones under the impression they are the product Apple produces.

    Of course they aren't. The "Apple" name and logo still belong to Apple in Brazil. And like TFA says, the Brazilian iPhone will have a green Android logo. So, no "fake Apple iPhones" just "Brazilian iPhones". No one who wants an Apple iPhone will be buying these by mistake.

    That's the risk you take when you use such a very simple almost generic name for your product.

  18. How about if Gradiente just makes a better phone? by Brannon · · Score: 2

    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.