Coming off the heels of a recent legal battle with Brazilian mobile maker Gradiente, Apple has just lost another iPhone trademark dispute. This time, it was in Mexico, where the US electronics giant was accused, and ultimately found guilty of infringing on another company’s brand name, known for the past ten years as “iFone”.
Though the court ruling is recent, the trademark issue is not. The two companies have been going at it over naming rights since 2009. It was at that time that apple tried to register the “iPhone” name in Mexico, much to the chagrin of the people at iFone, who demanded a prompt rejection of the trademark registry from the Mexican government. They got their wish, and Apple was turned down based on the similarity their iPhone product had with the iFone brand, a trademark that had been registered in Mexico since 2003, years before Apple released its signature smartphone.
Much like in the Brazil-Gradiente case, Apple sued, and claimed that the iFone brand was inactive, and therefore not applicable for challenging trademark infringement. They lost the case, however, when a federal court ruled that the name and brand were still very much alive, and in active use by its owners.
The Mexican Supreme Court has now rejected Apple’s appeal, giving the company no alternative other than to seek a civil settlement with the company, to attempt to regain access to its trademark. It may not be as easy to sway iFone, however, as they may have thought. In an attempt to prove sole rights over their brand, iFone has now launched their own suit against Apple and the mobile networks for infringing its trademark.
According to Eduardo Gallestegui, a member of iFone’s legal council, “Apple started the controversy, their first step was to file a lawsuit, they didn’t previously approach the company.” While Apple does in fact hold a trademark for the iPhone in Mexico, it only covers the hardware, and not the telecom services associated with it. Now iFone seems determined to prove a point and they show no signs of backing down. For now, it appears, Apple is in for a long fight.