Firm Launches 'IPHONE' Brand of Android Phones, Touts Trademark Ownership in Brazil

[90miles]

Originally Posted by charlituna

But apparently not a big name anymore which is why they pulled this stunt. They could have banked on their history and former clout and release a cell phone. But no, they released one using a basically discarded trademark that is used by one of the biggest companies in the world which is guaranteed to get them press etc. that was not an accident.

Getting some media-hype is a part of the business and they are not wrong by doing so considering they have the brand since 2000 they can use at their discretion actually.

[BassPlayer]

There's a big difference between this and the Proview issue.

Proview actually released a product under the "Ipad" name. Granted, it was a computer monitor, but it was a physical product that was sold to consumers. Apple was right to offer money to use the name, regardless of the outrageous fee Proview initially requested from Apple. IGB says they own the trademark and INTEND on releasing a product.

I'm no lawyer, but there's got to be some kind of "Squatter's Rights" law wherein IGB can't sue Apple now as the iPhone has been out for x number of years and IGB has done nothing to enforce their trademark until now.

[hayesk]

Originally Posted by Elit3

You guys are being stupid. You realize that Apple got sued for the the name iPhone, with Linksys being the first company to have an "iPhone" and like Apple always do the wormed their way out like the rats they are. And now you guys are complaining about this, are you joking me, Apple iSheep. (Mod's ban me if you want, I just won't let them be attacked because of something Apple also did to Linksys).
If you don't believe me search GOOGLE for "Linksys iPhone"

It was Cisco that owned Linksys at the time. And by "wormed their way out" you mean Apple settled with Cisco for the rights in a mutually agreeable fashion, correct? If yo don't believe me search GOOGLE for "Apple settles with Cisco for iPhone name"

You use phrases like "wormed their way out" and "like the rats they are", and you have the nerve to call people iSheep? Try harder next time, kid.

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Originally Posted by BassPlayer

I'm no lawyer, but there's got to be some kind of "Squatter's Rights" law wherein IGB can't sue Apple now as the iPhone has been out for x number of years and IGB has done nothing to enforce their trademark until now.

You are thinking of trademark dilution where you can lose exclusive rights to your trademark if you don't protect it. In order to keep exlucsive rights to the iPhone name in Brazil, they'd have to prove to the courts that they didn't know about Apple using the iPhone name. This is highly unlikely.

But this doesn't mean that IGB can't continue to use the name. It means they both can, but Apple doesn't have to pay damages to IGB.

But the most likely outcome is Apple will pay IGB a bunch of money for the exclusive use of the name. I'm certain this was IGB's plan all along.

[Elit3]

Originally Posted by hayesk

It was Cisco that owned Linksys at the time. And by "wormed their way out" you mean Apple settled with Cisco for the rights in a mutually agreeable fashion, correct? If yo don't believe me search GOOGLE for "Apple settles with Cisco for iPhone name"

You use phrases like "wormed their way out" and "like the rats they are", and you have the nerve to call people iSheep? Try harder next time, kid.

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You are thinking of trademark dilution where you can lose exclusive rights to your trademark if you don't protect it. In order to keep exlucsive rights to the iPhone name in Brazil, they'd have to prove to the courts that they didn't know about Apple using the iPhone name. This is highly unlikely.

But this doesn't mean that IGB can't continue to use the name. It means they both can, but Apple doesn't have to pay damages to IGB.

But the most likely outcome is Apple will pay IGB a bunch of money for the exclusive use of the name. I'm certain this was IGB's plan all along.

That is what I mean by "wormed their way out of it", they probably bribed cisco.

[chagla]

Originally Posted by Unggoy Murderer

I have, was on a HTC One XL at my University (We were testing Android's security, that was a laugh!). It was pathetic, got absolutely NOTHING on iOS. The Android user experience is one of the worst 'computing' platforms I've ever seen, how the consumer can use it - let alone like it - is well beyond me.

care to elaborate on your "security flaws" of Android? you sound very smart. i think you should join pwn2own contest. earn some fame and money.

regarding android experience, a big LOL. in what ways it's "worst"? can u give some specific examples?

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Originally Posted by BvizioN

...
In my honest opinion, lot better then messy Android.

it's only messy IF you/user makes it messy.. on an Android phone you can have:

NO icons on screen - empty
few icons on screen - clean
NO widgets on screen
icon/widget combo
...
....

the list goes on. YOU decide how your phone looks like. so you and I could have same handset model yet both will be very personalized to suit our needs. it isn't ios like where everyones phones are same! quite literally.

[NightFlight]

I really don't see how some with even a quarter of a brain would choose this device thinking that it is an actual iPhone.

Also, why in the world would they launch a device with Android 2.3 when we are already at 4.2? Gingerbread is the equivalent to using XP at this point in time.

Originally Posted by Dr McKay

No it isn't, that's simply your opinion, I for one think that default Android 4 and above looks beautiful. If it isn't to your liking you can skin it how you like very easily, you can get an iOS launcher if you wanted, a Windows Phone launcher, or other launchers that present a unique experience

They tested iOS for use as phones here in the Royal Air Force, it failed on roughly 161 security violations so we're sticking with Blackberries. I understand the American Army is looking into Android.

I find most of the apps to be the same as Android, some apps even have more functionality because Android allows you to do more.

Playing with a phone for 10 minutes does not qualify you to pass reasonable judgement on it, but then you picked one with poor hardware and got a bad experience. Ive seen how my old iPhone 3G is doing, it stutters and lags switching homescreens, settings takes literally 5 seconds to open. It basically screams "Kill me!"

That is not enough time to form a proper opinion on a device.

How does it look dull? I think it looks rather elegant, I don't have that clock on my homescreen, thats whats great about Android, don't like something? Get rid of it. Complaining because theres "just a few icons" on there? Put more on.

Just because he's debunking your lies about Android does not make him a fanboy.

There are plenty of wasted pixels on iPhone, infact I used to jailbreak my iPhones and make it so the icons were closer together, you can fit a whole new column and row in when that happens.

Radical changes? They're mostly cosmetic, I think it looks sleek and elegant, I got so bored of iOS after using it since the iPhone 1. I'm guessing you wouldnt be happy with Android unless you were using this launcher?

*snip*

Yes it tells you you've saved a screenshot, its not a bug, Oh no! a tiny message tells me the screenshot has been saved comes up for a brief second!

You say people are entitled to their own opinion, yet you're effectively saying anyone who has a different opinion to you is "wrong".

Yes you can have a weather widget or stocks in Notification centre, however that takes an extra step to reach, iOS is full of that, pointless extra steps to achieve the same result. Try making Safari go into private browsing and get back to the browser, count the steps.

What if I don't want to use Siri, play music or take a picture at that point? If I don't currently have any notifications at that point my locks screen is 80% wasted space.

Apps on Android are high quality too, I've seen plenty of crap apps on iOS.

People have spent time on UI/UX on Android, and most people love it, Apple have not nailed the UI, perhaps years and years ago it was nice, now it's boring, flat, resistant to change. Anyone who says Apple "nailed" the UI with a straight face after seeing apps like "Find a Friend" or "GameCenter"is a liar or a troll.

*snip*

Why not simply get the information at a glance instantly instead of making Siri pop up (Felt like a significant delay for Siri on my iPhone 5, let her process the request for 5-6 seconds and then come back with "I'm sorry, I don't understand 'Lawnmower bathroom carpet blue onions'"


Image

Sir, I just started a slow clap in my office after reading this.

You intelligently countered each and every point that came up with facts and not opinion. This doesn't happen too often. I applaud you.

[hayesk]

Originally Posted by Elit3

That is what I mean by "wormed their way out of it", they probably bribed cisco.

Bribing implies paying someone to do something illegal or dishonest. There's nothing dishonest or illegal about paying for the use of or acquiring a trademark. There's no "worming out" here. You are just putting negative spin on it because you don't like Apple.

[WhoDaKat]

Originally Posted by Psychj0e

You've completely missed the point. You made the post about how the big ol' US of A was saving the day, so therefore the Brazilian government should get involved, ignore the Brazilians own law, and appease the Americans. You even missed the point that in Brazil, Apple are not the trademark holder of the term iPhone - you just arrogantly assume that because it is the case in America, it should be in Brazil because American law is somehow superior/holds more than Brazilians own laws/regulations, and records.

And you didn't insert two random countries, you were clearly just demonstrating that awful, ego-centric, yeehaw American attitude.

Ridiculous. You can't even see your own ignorance. America is your bad guy, and you have no desire for that to change. Bad America, the world is poor because America took all the money. Boo hoo for us.

I never said America was saving anything! Thats just the attitude you want me to have so it confirms to your ignorance about America. We just happened to be talking about an AMERICAN company! I understand that Apple doesn't hold the trademark for IPHONE in Brazil, duh, why else would we be having the conversation? And again, you are putting words in my mouth when you say I think Apple should ignore the local laws. LOL Why do you think I mentioned going to the Brazilian government and letting them handle it? The point YOU are missing is that people buy up trademarks (in every country - not just Brazil - since you seem to be uber sensitive) and then do nothing with them. Then when a company (from any where in the world) that "creates" (products, jobs, money) comes along these snakes jump out and make them pay because 20 years ago they bought up a bunch of words and trademarked them for no reason other then to hopefully some day, fleece a legitimate company in court. I said the same thing about Proview in China, and the same thing about the company that held the iPhone trademark in Mexico. Screw them. Don't play their game. Of course money is king, so they will do the math and if it makes sense to pay them off they will, but I PERSONALLY don't like it. Hence why I posted.

AND I DIDN'T INSERT TWO RANDOM COMPANIES BECAUSE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT APPLE IN BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!

[mabhatter]

Originally Posted by roxxette

So this is the same story like the ipad china ?

iPad in China was worse... It was China vs Taiwan. That politics has been just shy of a shooting war for 50 years. There was no way a court in China was going to uphold a sale of that magnitude made in Taiwan. Also, Proview had previously manufactured and SOLD a line of items "recently" with the trademark.. More recently that this Brazil trademark was granted. Proview was trying to "claw back" on an international technicality... Ultimately, they lost horribly as the Chinese court only gave them Millions... They needed BILLIONS just to pay creditors.

This issue in Brazil is just a grab. It might hold in Brazilian Courts... Rooting for the home team and all... But the WTO would shut these guys down if one phone got sold OUTSIDE Brazil. They held the mark for 12 years and never USED it till Apple was close to opening shop. They will lose... But Apple might shell out some money to speed things along.

[aerok]

Originally Posted by matttye

Fair enough. Seems like there's something wrong with the legal system if people can even start court cases against companies using their own trademarks though

Yes and no, sometimes it's fair to fight in court for something that should not have been trademarked. Not saying this is case for this one though...

[Tiger8]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

It looks like an iPod Touch/iPhone 2G.

And yeah, pure greed right there. Disgusting.

Read the article please, they had the trademark since 2000. Apple did not invent the word 'iPhone' in Brazil.

[Kludge420]

Originally Posted by penguintheft

Buyers will be confused and get this iPhone instead of the one they intended.

No one will be confused except the elderly and they're rapidly dying off.

[brdeveloper]

For non-brazilians:

Gradiente is a brazilian company founded in 1964.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradiente

Some years ago, they came in bankruptcy mainly (in my view) because their business carried a mentality from the dictatorship years, when importing was very restricted by the nationalist government. In the 90's, brazilian market was opened to importing so Gradiente couldn't compete with cheaper products from China, Taiwan, etc.

Gradiente sometimes looked very professional (I had a dual cassette tape deck from the mid-90s which I used a lot for home recordings). Sometimes, it looked cheap like chinese counterfeit electronics. In general, Gradiente products were pretty decent until the mid-90s, sometimes being as expensive as Panasonic, Sharp and Philips (but not Sony) but in the 2000's looks like they lost most of their innovative appeal (maybe they had to fire a lot of key people from their R&D department).

I hope this new line of Gradiente "iphones" won't be more of legally imported low-cost rebranded phones for tax exemptions. But I doubt that.

Apple iPhone and Gradiente iphone can both live pacifically in Brazil. One is clearly top-notch, state-of-the-art; the other, a cheap Android phone which most of its buyers coundn't even dream buying the Apple's one. So, there is no conflict. This iphone is competitor of inexpensive chinese Android phones.

[brdeveloper]

Originally Posted by swimatm

This is hilarious. I, for one, hope they keep the trademark and use it instead of selling to Apple. They are the rightful owners, after all.

At least in Brazil, they are. Also, looks like Gradiente is emerging from a long-time concordat, so Apple lawyers couldn't argue they didn't use the brand because probably they were unable to launch any new product over the last years.

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Originally Posted by WhoDaKat

This is what you get when an American company tries to bring jobs to Brazil's tortured economy. I'd tell the Brazilian government to handle it or I'd pull out every job I was planning on bringing there and dump them in whatever country is closest that isn't full of cheating pricks. Hell, I'd pull the iPhone itself from the country. In the rest of the world we get the iPhone, but in Brazil you get the cheesy piece of crap IPHONE. Congrats, the world thinks you are morons.

Come on, iPhone is a very simple brand name. There are thousands of cases like this around the world. It's like registering a brand like "eCommerce" or "Web Technology". You're doing cheap patriotism. Now, go vote Bush and launch a war against Brazil.


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Originally Posted by RedCroissant

If this is true, fine. The question is, did they manufacture/release any phones from 2000 on and did they also release any new phones during the reorganization period?

And if they were such a big brand that could compete with other big name brands, why wait until now to release a phone with the iPhone name? Perhaps it is what all people here are saying: the company reorganized to decrease debt and remain afloat, they finally released the iPhone they were hoping for when they originally got the trademark back in 2000, AND it's a money grab hoping for a payout to pay off other debt.

After all, there is no problem with them using the iPhone name when they own the trademark for it, but their timing is questionable and suspicious; especially when Apple is ramping up their presence in Brazil.

Reorganization = closed. I don't remember ANY Gradiente product by the last six or seven years.

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Originally Posted by Noctilux.95

For all the Brazilians defending this dick move, Messi is already better than Pele ever was!

How many world cups Messi won?

[brdeveloper]

Originally Posted by Stridder44

I love hypocrites like yourself.

If Apple is getting screwed over, it's justice. But when an Apple competitor comes along blatantly trying to get money, It's "how dare Apple bully a poor small company like this"

Hey, what would you say if a company copied some of Apple patents in its own operating system?

Now, what are you saying from a company which is trying to use its own brand, at least under brazilian territorial boundaries?

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by brdeveloper

Now, what are you saying from a company which is trying to use its own brand, at least under brazilian territorial boundaries?

So you're saying that this company's use of their iPhone trademark in the year 2012 has nothing to do with Apple's iPhone. Is that what you're saying?

[brdeveloper]

Originally Posted by LagunaSol

So you're saying that this company's use of their iPhone trademark in the year 2012 has nothing to do with Apple's iPhone. Is that what you're saying?

No, I don't. But does it matter? It owns the trademark just like Apple owns a bunch of unused trademarks. Also, although Gradiente claimed the iphone trademark in 2000, INPI (the brazilian institute of industrial property) only approved the exclusive ownership of the trademark in 2008.

On the other hand, I agree that most trademarks and intellectual property are ways of getting easy money from companies really interested in innovation.

Google translation from brazilian news:
"Gradiente did not use the iPhone brand yet because his priority was to promote the restructuring of its operations and allow the resumption of their business" - said one of the company's president.

Source: http://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/eco...o-iphone.shtml

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by brdeveloper

No, I don't. But does it matter?

Not really. As I mentioned early in this thread, I think Apple should just ignore this desperate bid for attention and let the product implode on its own.

[iHailCarlo]

What a piece of crap!!

[flameproof]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

So, this is just a blatant money grab, right?

Of course a good person like you would give it to Apple for free. Right?

And if a good person like would go up to Apple and ask them to use i.e. their registered name 'Newton' Apple would say - "Sure, just use as you please for free".

Messi is already better than Pele ever was!

Quite a silly comment, Pele played football in the 70's - Messi now. Football is a totally different game now. And how does that relate to the iPhone anyway?

[oplix]

the point is that apple has enough money that it shouldnt care to secure such assets. that other company is doing the right thing if apple didn't want to pay them off. it's their property.

[Stridder44]

Originally Posted by brdeveloper

Hey, what would you say if a company copied some of Apple patents in its own operating system?

Now, what are you saying from a company which is trying to use its own brand, at least under brazilian territorial boundaries?

Right, because no one there has ever heard of "iPhone" before since it's only sold insane amounts of volume and has been out since 2007.

[adder7712]

Originally Posted by TheMacBookPro

Image

Ooh, exciting!

Exactly!

[riverfreak]

Originally Posted by jessica.

Whatever. Fanboys will see it only as a money grab. I see it as opportunistic.

Yes. Exactly.

Opportunistically exploiting others IP and brand awareness. It's always cheaper and easier to steal than make something yourself.

[mdsco]

I play with every OS I can get my hands on have a old droidx just to throw different OS and roms at bricked it more times than I can count but you can make it what you want use it mainly as a media remote for my tv right now its running a basic miui rom also messing with raspberrypi to see what I can make it do not much yet just cool for the money. Got umbuntu on one laptop not my fave. Like IOS for simplicity very functional IOS fans can be a bit like religious fanatics though will not even touch something else.