Good... Finally some reason in this case. I don't know what Brazilian law is like, but in the USA, if you fail to use and defend a trademark, you lose it.
According to Wikipedia, even in the States, (3) companies used the iPhone name before Apple started using it:
Infogear
Linksys
Cisco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_iphone
good guy judge
Well, I'm Brazilian and i DO know something about our laws.
The Company (here we call it "Gradiente", it used to be a really big electronics company) DID registered the name "iPhone" 7 years BEFORE apple launched the iPhone in the US and maybe 9 years before it was launched in Brazil , so it's pretty clear that they indeed have a case (remember that when apple launched the original iPhone they actually bought the name from a British company or something).
That been sad it's also a fact that they saw a HUGE opportunity to make some cash from apple's deep pockets and that's the only reason they launched the crappiest iPhone ever(it's crap even from Android standards)
so,
1)they registered the name many years before anyone started talking about apple releasing a phone
2)they are a electronics company.They actually used to have pretty good phones back in the day (nokia technology when nokia tech meant something)
I don't see a way where apple DOESN'T pay a lot to get exclusive rights to the name, the fact that today both companies are allowed to used it is meaningless, or any one can imagine apple sharing a name?
....
I don't see a way where apple DOESN'T pay a lot to get exclusive rights to the name, the fact that today both companies are allowed to used it is meaningless, or any one can imagine apple sharing a name?
Well, according to this, they've trademarked quite a few words that really seem pretty popular with other people. Like:I wonder if Apple has any names trademarked that they haven't used yet and also how long the had iPhone, iPad, iPod, before the product was actually released. Just curious.
Well, according to this, they've trademarked quite a few words that really seem pretty popular with other people. Like:
New York
Numbers
Textile
Safari
Sand
Bonjour
I hope no one gets confused.
Or just intelligent. You don't get to cry foul when you don't use your patent until after someone else gets popular with it.
----------
I'm a little odd here in that I'm not a rabid Apple fanboy, but even I can see Apple clearly deserved to win this case. They may have patented the name nearly a decade before Apple started using it, but they never used it during that time.
I think you meant to say "boatloads".
![]()
Back in 1998, that actually meant something. The character has since lost its meaning and now implies "Apple product." Think about it; the iPod didn't go online, iBooks are downloaded, iMovie is a desktop app, etc.
Back in 1998, that actually meant something. The character has since lost its meaning and now implies "Apple product." Think about it; the iPod didn't go online, iBooks are downloaded, iMovie is a desktop app, etc.
A bit ironic considering when the "i" nomenclature was revealed by Apple, one of the things they said it stood for was "internet".
Good stuff. Couldn't be made up.
Image
According to Wikipedia, even in the States, (3) companies used the iPhone name before Apple started using it:
Infogear
Linksys
Cisco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_iphone
means.Apple and Cisco settled their dispute on February 20, 2007. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between Apple's products and Cisco's services and other unspecified terms.[8]
How long have they had these trademarked? I'm just curious if there is some arbitrary statute of limitations on how long you can own a trademark before using it or else you lose it.
Well, according to this, they've trademarked quite a few words that really seem pretty popular with other people.
"i" in Apple products just stood for "I", as in the pronoun. It meant/means that it's personal.
Personally I think this is the right call; iSomething naming was made popular by Apple's iMacs, triggering a huge upsurge in, usually cheap and tacky, iNaming for all sorts of things.
How long have they had these trademarked? I'm just curious if there is some arbitrary statute of limitations on how long you can own a trademark before using it or else you lose it.
I wonder how much Apple paid... to the judge
In the US, you have to use your trademark on an actual product or service within six months, otherwise you lose the pending registration.
However, you can also file extensions, which can stretch the initial delay to about three years. (!)
(Extensions are a favorite ploy of trademark squatters. They hope that a company won't want to wait that long, and will instead pay them off earlier.)