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After Trademark Dispute, Mexican Carriers Can No Longer Use iPhone Name In Ads
An anonymous reader writes "The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) on Thursday announced it has absolved Apple of wrongdoing in a trademark lawsuit surrounding the iPhone's infringement of a local telecommunications company marketing the phonetically identical 'iFone' brand. The logic behind the ruling was based on the difference in the two companies' markets. While iFone sells telecommunications services, Apple sells smartphones (but not actual telecommunications service). Because cellular carriers offer telecommunications services, the IMPI ruled that carriers have to remove the word 'iPhone' from all marketing materials within the next 15 days."
I don't know anything about Mexican trademark law, but the decision seems fair on the surface.
If the "iFone" brand was in use beforehand, then I can see how "iPhone" would be confusing.
Maybe Apple or the carriers will cut a deal... or maybe their marketing material will just start referring to "apple phones."
I heard you didn't like your iPhone so I took your iPhone out of your iFone
(Or something like that)
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
The Solution. Apple just comes up with another name for the IPhone and sells the IPhone under that name in Mexico.
... "el teléfono de la manzana"?
In big letters: "This is not an iFone".
"We don't sell the iFone".
and so on.
The summary is VERY misleading.
Real summary:
There was a telecom company named IFone.
4yrs later along came Apple with their IPhone.
Carriers in Mexico that competed with IFone, started carrying IPhones, and they started advertising as such.
Apple sued to try and take the trademark from the company. Even though the name clearly predated Apples.
IFone counter sued, and said that the name was confusing customers as to where to get their service.
The court said Apple could keep the name because they are in different industries. But the cross-advertising did, in fact, confuse consumers, so other Telecoms could not advertise with the word IPhone.
All this ruling does is let Apple continue to sell their phones in Mexico, and bar telecoms for advertising it along with their service.
IFone can still sue for damages. Apple will likely settle out of court as it's pretty clear they are going to lose.
Geonocide is not the answer. Try again.
Who do these Mexicans think they are, trying to impede on Apple's manifest destiny?
You must be a seppo - writing from the sewer of the planet, the US.
[......] iPhone [......] phonetically identical 'iFone' brand
The author of this article clearly has no idea about Spanish pronunciation.
They can just advertise iPhone as "The Phone from Apple its name we can't name, but you know which one it's"
What happened is that a Mexican company registered the name iFone, which the court found phonetically equal to iPhone, for the purpose of selling communication services.
The three largest carriers (Telcel, Iusacell y Telefonica Movistar) were prohibited from using iPhone in their advertising, as they cell precisely, communications services.
Apple itself is not prohibited from using its brand name, but can use it only for the purposes of selling the phone, not services.
In Mexico as in other countries, the same brand can be used to sell different types of goods and services; what the court found, was Apple's registration was too broad and that the Mexican company had a narrow registration, which was also prior to Apples'.
The suit came from Apple to force the Mexican company to stop using its own brand; now the Mexican company is countersuing for damages and asking for 40% of the revenue generated using the brand in Mexico.
Link to the registration
.
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
In the United States, certain carriers were allowed to have the iPhone first. I don't know whether iFone sells the iPhone, or how common the subsidy and locking practices are in the Mexican mobile phone market, but I'm imagining ads like this: "You'd think iFone would have an Apple phone, but you'd be wrong."
You're not fooling anyone. Mexico has no carriers.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
From TFA:-
So far so good, you need to register your TM for specific markets. Thats why the music company that owns the Beatles' music and the tech company that produces smartphones both can use the name "Apple".
This is the dodgy part. Normally TM is only infringed if the TM that you use is either identical to the registered mark, or so similar that it causes confusion among the public causing them to mistake your goods/services for that of the registered TM holder.
From a logical point of view, the whole idea behind telcos flogging iPhones in the first place is to use a well known premium product, the iPhone to induce potential customers to sign with them. It would be counter productive if the potential customers were to somehow equate their offer with "iFone" services which do not have that cachet. Any way you look at it, it seems to be an abuse of TM law.
Free Willzyx.
Spin it how you will, but carriers banned from advertising iphones in Mexico is a loss for Apple. My crystal ball says that the next chapter in the saga is a big payment from Apple to the owner of the Mexican iFone trademark.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Can't they just disambiguate it, by referring to the "Apple iPhone"? You know... apply some common sense...
And let's hope those selling iFone services stop selling those too - then there's absolutely no confusion at all and iFone goes away.