Beijing – Apple Loses Chinese Lawsuit Over iPhone Name

    1

    A man uses his iPhone near an Apple retails store in Beijing, China, Wednesday, May 4, 2016. Apple Inc. has lost a legal fight with a Chinese company that a Beijing court says is allowed to use the iPhone name on its products. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)Beijing – Apple Inc. has lost a legal fight with a Chinese company that a Beijing court says is allowed to use the iPhone name on wallets and handbags.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    The court said Apple failed to prove iPhone was a “famous brand” in China before the local company applied for a trademark in 2007, an official legal newspaper reported. Such status under Chinese law might limit its use on other products.

    The ruling in late April allows Xintong Tiandi Technology to keep using the iPhone name, according to the Legal Daily, which is published by the ruling Communist Party’s legal affairs committee. The company registered the name for use on handbags, mobile phone cases and other leather goods.

    Phone calls to the Beijing Higher Level People’s Court were not answered.

    China is Apple’s second-biggest market after the United States, though first-quarter sales in the Greater China region fell 26 percent from a year earlier.

    Apple’s iTunes and iBooks services also have been suspended in China, though the company said last month it hopes to resume operation soon.

    Apple applied to trademark iPhone for computer- and software-related goods in 2002, according to the Legal Daily.

    Xintong Tiandi applied to use the name on wallets and leather goods two years before Apple’s smartphones went on sale in China in 2009, it said.

    Apple filed suit in 2012 challenging the Chinese company’s use of the name.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    1 Comment
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    7 years ago

    China is a superpower to be reckoned with on all fronts, and on the new world stage, China is now the main puppeteer and pulling the strings, so all nations of the world have to sublimated themselves to her. China is being paid back in kind for harboring the mirrer yeshiva during the war, plus another 20000 Jews who lived in the Shanghai ghetto of Hangpu. As long as China keeps buying out all of Israeli industry they will have the zechus to stabilize peace in the Middle East, unless the Mashiach comes first, which of course is every Jews hope and prayer.