According to a recent article in Forbes Magazine, consumer electronics giant Apple is one step closer to ending its trademark dispute with IGB Eletronica, a Brazilian telecommunications firm.  The dispute all centers around the company’s use of the name iPhone, which Apple staunchly claims exclusivity rights to. But there’s a catch. IGB owns a brand called Gradiente.  In March 2000, Gradiente had registed the brand IPHONE with the Brazilian Industrial Property Institute (INPI).

At the time, only the iPod and iTunes were known entities in Brazil, giving Gradiente a legitimate case in the naming rights for the iPhone, a product Apple wouldn’t release until some seven years later.  Coincidentally, it took INPI those same seven years to grant IGB the right to trademark the now famous name. And just like that, the Brazilian-made, non-Apple, G-Gradiente IPHONE was launched.

The problem is, Apple wants the name iPhone all to itself. And they were ready to put up a fight. In fact, in 2007 they tried, right around the time INPI had given exclusivity rights to the iPhone name to Gradiente’s smartphone. The battle has been going on ever since, with Apple repeatedly getting denied exclusivity, and IGB fighting tooth and nail not to give up the branding of their product.

According to Brazil’s largest daily newspaper, Folha de São Paulo, both companies have come to a mutual agreement, and will temporarily end the iPhone copyright lawsuit, coming up with what they’re calling a “pacific agreement” between both parties.

Apple has paid handsomely in the past for exclusive use of the word iPhone, and all signs point to the Cupertino, CA company shelling out a significant sum to IGB as well. The Gradiente iPhone actually runs on Android rather than Apple’s iOS, giving it a unique user experience to Apple’s product.

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