At first this looks like just one of those things. Apple makes the iPhone, this we all know, but in Mexico, as in Brazil, another company has a very similar trademark. Usually something can be worked out in such cases. It's not exactly unusual that a would be global trademark finds there are other local uses for it: Microsoft dropped "Metro" as a description of the tiles in Windows 8 after pushback from the German retail chain, "Metro" for example.
Apple's already lost hope for exclusive rights to the name "iPhone" in Brazil, and now it's been defeated in another battle south of the border. Cupertino and Mexican company iFone S.A. have a long history, stretching back to 2009 when Apple tried to have the firm's "iFone" trademark revoked.
Oh well, as I say, it's always a little unlikely that any word is going to be unique in 190 countries or more, isn't it? However, it's going a little further than that in Mexico.
A Mexican technology services company is hoping to reap compensation from Apple Inc. and local mobile operators for the use of its brand name—Ifone—after Mexico's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the local firm owns and makes proper use of the brand in the country.
Ah, it's going to get worse for Apple. Not only are they not allowed to use iPhone they've got to pay damages for having done so. And those damages could be substantial:
It's unknown how much money the Mexican company is looking for, but its corporate lawyer told The Wall Street Journal that the law provides for an award of at least 40 percent of infringing sales.
Lucky that Apple's net margins on iPhones are up at around that 40% level really. At least they'll not be losing money after paying the damages.
iFone didn't and doesn't market a phone but they do use the name as a brand for their call centre services. This is obviously close enough in the various classes to which trademarks can be assigned that their precedence takes, umm, precedence.
In Mexico, the fight was not over the brand of a device though, it was over the name itself, as a service for which iFone has been using for years.
One thing that's worth noting is that the potential damages are not 40% of iFones' quite small sales, but 40% of Apple's rather large ones of the offending devices.
After the near disaster in China with Proview and the iPad trademark and now this I do wonder whether Apple is really paying quite enough attention to these trademark issues. We know they're very keen indeed on the other half of IP law, patents, but this is starting to look a little careless over trademarks.
