As we’ve reported here in the past, Apple is facing an intriguing legal dispute in Brazil when it comes to the “iPhone” trademark as a local company called Gradiente claims to have patented the name long before Apple. As the case still awaits a final judgment, Gradiente still believes that it created the first iPhone.
Apple disputes the iPhone trademark in Brazil
In an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo (via MacMagazine), Gradiente CEO Eugênio Staub told how he feels about the dispute between his company and Apple. Staub complained about even Brazilian people accusing Gradiente of taking advantage of the situation to try to get money out of Apple, which he says is not the case.
“People look at this story and say ‘Gradiente is a Brazilian company, so it must be a scam, right?’” the executive said.
Staub showed the journalist an old unit of the phone called the “Gradiente Iphone,” which was launched in Brazil in 2000 – seven years before Apple’s iPhone. He also showed some leaflets used to promote the phone at the time. “We sold 30,000 [units] in a few months,” Staub said.
However, due to a dispute between Gradiente and another Brazilian company, the “Iphone” trademark was only granted to Gradiente in 2008, a year after Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. At the time, Gradiente was no longer selling phones, but that changed in 2012 when the Brazilian company announced an Android smartphone called the “Gradiente Iphone.”
Unsurprisingly, Apple has asked the Brazilian regulator to invalidate the trademark of Gradiente, which ended up losing the exclusive rights to the “Iphone” trademark in Brazil in 2013. Both companies have been battling in court ever since and are awaiting a final judgment from the Supreme Court. Even so, Gradiente’s CEO says he has nothing against Apple’s iPhone.
“He [Steve Jobs] launched a sensational product. He’s a genius of our generation and of several generations. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we launched a similar product before with the same name,” Gradiente’s CEO argues. “The country [Brazil] doesn’t recognize many of its own innovations,” he adds.
A date for the final trial is yet to be announced.
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