UK Edition
Apple loses battle with handbag maker over iPhone trademark in China
Apple has lost its appeal against a Chinese leather goods maker over its use of the iPhone trademark, after failing to prove the term was "familiar to the public and widely known".
Xintong Tiandi, which makes handbags, phone cases and purses, registered the use of the term iPhone for leather products back in 2007, the same year the iPhone was first launched, but a full two years before the smartphone was first sold in China.
The Californian company first filed legal action against Xintong Tiandi in 2012, which it lost the following year. On appeal the Beijing municipality court ruled that Apple had not managed to prove the iPhone brand was "familiar to the public and widely known" in China prior to its registration, according to the People's Daily newspaper.
The company filed a trademark to use the term in relation to electronics in 2002, but it was not approved for 11 years.
Mainland China is Apple's second-largest market behind the US, where it is the best-selling smartphone brand. However, weak international currency and unstable economic conditions contributed to a sales decline of 26 per cent year-on-year during January - March.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has not declared success in the country crucial to the future success of the company.
The Apple Watch keynote event last March opened with a video dedicated to store openings in the country, last October he made the unprecedented move of reassuring worried investors back in August that Apple's performance in China remained strong despite fears over the cooling economy, and has confirmed in the past that the company has selected iPhones colours (namely gold) in a bid to appeal to Chinese customers.
Trademark violation and counterfeiting are grave issues for Apple across China, where false stores are regularly built - some selling genuine products, while others peddle unauthorised fakes.
Where genuine products are sold, unscrupulous retailers often sell new iPhones and iPads on for many times their market value.
Some analysts have claimed the presence of the fake stores could be beneficial for the company in terms of raising brand awareness in a country with just 32 official shops at the time of writing. It hopes to open a further eight by October.
Contactless payment system Apple Pay was launched in China in February, where it hopes to rival the wildly popular Alibaba's system Alipay and WeChat Payment platform.
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