Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iphoneclassic

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
375
7
USA
Yet another dumb ruling. iPhone is "different" than ifone... Duh!!

:( :( :( :(

What pool of resources are these countries getting their judges from?!?

What would those Judges think about our "Light Bulb" Jury Foreman.

FYI. Apple paid $60 Million for iPad trademark settlement in China.
 

Teddy's

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2006
441
12
Toronto
Not so long time ago (2003) in a country not far away from here.

I have been to Mexico. I accidentally consumed a fountain soft drink at a fast food restaurant and put ice in it. I spent the next week at home sitting on the toilet.

Immediately resorting to stereotypes rather than commenting about the issue here. Ok well... I have never ever had problems drinking water in Mexico. I still think it is a very obnoxious thing to say "oh the water in Mexico this and that." They are obnoxious comments like the ones about the burros and the sombreros and Canadians living in igloos. We Canadians should learn more about our own continent. It is only a 4 hour flight from Toronto and still, many Canadians think it is like traveling to Tatooine.

About your glass of pop, I think you were holding it wrong.
 

realeric

macrumors 65816
Jun 19, 2009
1,152
1,544
United States
I agree... Apple has to stop thinking they can just sue everybody and anybody they feel like for the dumbest reasons. What's next? will they register the letter "i" as a prefix?

Anyway, three things here:

  1. The MacRumors article fails to mention that the company iFone (http://www.ifone.com.mx) is in the call center hardware and software business. It has nothing to do with mobile phones, Apple or anything related with its products or services.

  2. The picture that MacRumors presents in the article - that with an iPhone 5 - is disingenuous. Nowhere else can such picture be found, and certainly not in iFone's website. My guess is that MacRumors doctored that picture to make the article more appealing.

  3. The company iFone registered its brand name in 2003 - long before the iPhone was even a concept. And it was until 2009 that Apple tried to sue them, lost, and iFone countersued them as a retaliatory measure, but the company itself didn't saw a conflict until Apple started it.

Hope this clarifies the issue.

My guess is that this case has to do with Apple's bad legal counsel, it's raging narcissism and the idea that they are the rulers of the universe. If Apple understood the name and the case, it wouldn't have started it. But when dumb lawyers get involved for a big fat fee, this is what you get. Glad they got their asses handed back to them.

Cheers!

You didn't read the verge's article. Because iFone didn't use the name, Apple filed a lawsuit to get it canceled, which was absolutely a normal procedure. :cool:
 

macs4nw

macrumors 601
That's crazy, you can't expect an established company to change its name just because it sounds like one of your products. This is just wrong on so many levels.

They probably copied it from iMacs and iPods, but agreed, they did have iFone first.

I wouldn't be surprised if the name iFone originated from iMac and iPod, so tracing it back to its roots... Maybe Apple will sue over the use of the i? :D

To the best of my knowledge, the i started in 1997, when APPLE bought NEXT and SJ became the iCEO (interim CEO), so you may be right that iFone copied that idea. Nothing wrong with that, as iFone wasn't registered by anyone else at the time.

Can Apple just stop suing everyone already? Jeez.

"These fools"? They registered in 2003, then Apple sued in 2009 and they fought back. It doesn't seemed like they were going at Apple in the first place.

No, you're right, they didn't, but APPLE argued at the time, that iFone's Mexican Class 38 mark wasn't being actively used. But by suing, to get it cancelled so they could register their own iPhone Class 38 mark, APPLE surely opened a can of worms. Using it or not, by 2009 iFone realized the value of that little i to APPLE, and weren't gonna roll over. This is going to cost APPLE a pretty penny! See CristobalHuet and mytdave below.

Time to dip into the warchest and pay.....

.....iFone was first to the party. Would have been better to enter into an agreement with them, back before the iPhone launched, now it's gonna cost (is costing) a bundle.
 

Drunken Master

macrumors 65816
Jul 19, 2011
1,060
0
Immediately resorting to stereotypes rather than commenting about the issue here. Ok well... I have never ever had problems drinking water in Mexico. I still think it is a very obnoxious thing to say "oh the water in Mexico this and that." They are obnoxious comments like the ones about the burros and the sombreros and Canadians living in igloos. We Canadians should learn more about our own continent. It is only a 4 hour flight from Toronto and still, many Canadians think it is like traveling to Tatooine.

About your glass of pop, I think you were holding it wrong.

+1

Some people here defend Apple like it's their girlfriend's honor on the line.

Apple wasn't infallible at any point and it isn't now either.

Besides, I'm half Mexican and have been there almost every year of my life and have never heard of the iFone company.
 

donato

Suspended
Jun 3, 2008
39
0
Resorts being blown up? Well, it must be great to live in a country without any violence or crime. Maybe that's why we have more Canadian than American tourists these days. Because Canada is crime-free and these tourists are just aching for some good explosions, beatings and beheadings. Yeah, you are ignorant.

Actually, crime in Mexico is many times lower than the U.S. unless you are a narco. The border towns may have their troubles. But so does New Orleans (hometown), Detroit, D.C., etc. Living in Mexico City, crime is super low comparatively (I've even lived in some really rough neighborhoods). The point is, until you experience it, don't act like you know what the hell you are talking about. The U.S. definitely has a P.R. problem in regards to Mexico. It's unfortunate.
 

slcoss

macrumors member
Sep 3, 2008
35
7
lets start by saying I am proud mexican, altough I live in the border with the states so I go across the border several times a week, but I dont want to be american, there is a lot op people proud to be mexican. FACT: The full name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, could be translated in to Mexican United States, so we are US Citizen, that is from Mexico, and we live in North America, South America officialy starts below Mexico.

As a fellow mexican, I would NEVER say that I am US Citizen, not even if I have to make it clear that we are from the Mexican United States, and therefore MUS Citizen. Even if you say in spanish 'mexico-estadounidense' or 'estadounidense-mexicano' I would think you have both nationalities (for example if your mother is US american and your father mexican).

What I do say sometimes is that I am an american (I mean, because we are), but that depends on who and what we are talking about. If I'm talking in English about differences in Europe and America, and someone says 'americans', then I just ask 'do you mean US american, or everyone in America?' as it might get confusing, and more with some hard-headed US americans that don't like it when Mexico is considered part of North America.

Also, Central America starts below Mexico, and South America starts in Colombia, at least that is how I have it understood.
 

melendezest

Suspended
Jan 28, 2010
1,693
1,579
You didn't bother to read the article did you? iFone trademarked iPhone two years before Apple trademarked the iPhone.

And yes there have been products before the iMac that used a lower case i in their name so if anything Apple stole the i from them.

Oh, and "i" stands for Internet.

1. You didn't bother to try to understand my post, did you? I was alluding to the fact that in this case, and despite iFone being trademarked before the iPhone, Apple was already using the i prefix in several of their products.

2. What products were using the i prefix the way Apple's been, before Apple? I'm actually curious about that. I don't recall ever hearing i-anything before the iMac, and the subsequent iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iPod, iLife, etc. And Cisco's IOS is actually an acronym; not the same thing.

3. Thanks for the definition of the i thing, but I don't see how the i(nternet)pod, i(nternet) movie, i(nternet)dvd, etc make sense from a naming convention. I guess I'll have to look deeper for that one..
 

iLLUMI

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2012
567
281
iFone vs iPhone ... really Apple!
Just because they phonetically sound the same doesn't mean people aren't intelligent enough to figure out the difference!!
I mean it's like saying that people get confused when we use the words 'their', they're' and 'there' or 'weather' and 'whether'. In the context of a particular conversation people generally know what you're talking about. No one has to ask "well which 'their' are you referring to", they just know.

So if someone in Mexico says, "hey I bought an iPhone today!" are people over there going to get confused and ask "so you mean you bought the iFone company?". No! Of course not.

If Apple cares about this that much, and as someone else has already stated, then why doesn't Apple simply buy the company! Then they can make whatever changes they want to it. Who knows, maybe if they did buy it Apple will soon realise that if they start owning Telcos they can make even more money. :D

Apple iPhone + Apple iFone plan = kaching! $$$$$$$ (for Apple that is)
 

iLLUMI

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2012
567
281
Damn, what will happen to iNdia, iTaly and iSland?

On the good site, iDiots will cease to exist.

iSland???

More importantly, what will happen to countries whose names "phonetically" start with 'i" such as iBiza, iReland, iCeland, iRan and iRaq! :p

Will they sue all the iCe Cream companies next? :p

Oh man, I work in i.T., perhaps I should get out now. :p
 

moebius

macrumors member
Jul 27, 2007
82
4
I find funny those comments about apple leaving Mexico because of the drug cartels.

You know there are cartels in Mexico due to the drug consuming country at the north of them, right?

There are many Mexicans being killed just to avoid the drugs from reaching the backyard of any of our regular high schools here in the US, and also, you all believe those drugs are getting here without the active collaboration of the sweet gringo, right?

Some posters here put the "I" in ignorance.... Mmm, it could be a cool apple product: " the I-ignorance" coming to a store near you.
 

JForestZ34

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2007
931
227
I love how the other company had the name first but apple had to send them a letter to stop using it. WTF!!! They had it first. Who is apple to tell them to stop using their own name. Lol. I'm glad apple lost this one. It won't hurt apples sales so there should be no worries


James
 

Member(TM)

macrumors member
May 21, 2011
40
0
Spain
2. What products were using the i prefix the way Apple's been, before Apple? I'm actually curious about that. I don't recall ever hearing i-anything before the iMac, and the subsequent iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iPod, iLife, etc. And Cisco's IOS is actually an acronym; not the same thing.

I cannot remember a product, but an example of a company name (which would be equivalent to the current case, as iFone is a company name) predating the iMac announcement is iTECH. Apparently they filed the iTECH trademark in late 1997.
 

TheJae

macrumors regular
Mar 8, 2008
142
28
HKG
Not really mate, as much as I like your country, I LOVE being Mexican and I would NEVER want to be from the US, in every country in the world we go (except yours) they treat us really good, the love us, they know about our culture and I have made so many good friends all around the world. Saying "I am Mexican" is the best ice breaker ever :) People from the USA on the other hand...

Kind regards

Ps. This is an Apple forum, why so many racist and ignorants comments about Mexico?

:) That's so true. We used to drive 3 hours to go to that Mexican restaurant by the beach in Malaysia. Mexicans are really easy to get along. Americans on the other hand... have a problem with us, Chinese.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.