Apple And Brazilian Companies Compete For IPhone Trademark

The appearance of the iPhone's Gradiente (photo: dock. 9to5mac)

JAKARTA Apple is facing an unusual lawsuit in Brazil. When the 'iPhone' brand was already attached to Apple, one of the Brazilian technology companies claimed the brand.

The company is Gradiente. Since the first time this legal dispute started, Gradiente has said that they are the originator of the iPhone brand. They also claim to have patented the 'iPhone' before it was used by Apple.

During this case, Gradiente CEO Eugmenio Staub said that his company received a lot of criticism. To MacMagazine, Staub revealed that people consider Gradiente as the party who commits fraud.

As proof that his company is not lying, Staub shows an old phone unit known as the Gradiente iPhone. The phone was launched in 2000, seven years before the iPhone emerged and caught market attention.

Not only his cell phone unit, Staub also showed a number of brochures they had used to promote the phone. Staub said that, "We sold 30,000 (units) in a few months."

Although initially the launch of the iPhone brand went smoothly, Gradiente had to stop producing mobile phones due to disputes with other technology companies. Gradiente started selling cellphones back in 2012, but the response was not so good.

The company wants to release an Android-based phone of the same name as their first phone, but Apple objected. The tech giant asked Brazilian regulators to cancel the trademark that Gradiente would use.

In the end, Gradien lost exclusive rights to the 'iPhone' trademark in 2013. As a brand originator, Gradiente does not want to lose to Apple. Therefore, they are struggling in court and awaiting a final decision from the Supreme Court.

"(Steve Jobs) launched a sensational product. He is a genius of our generation and several other generations. However, it does not eliminate the fact that we have launched a similar product before with the same name," said Staub.

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