After "iPad", Apple loses the exclusive right to use the name "iPhone" in China to a Chinese leather goods manufacturer.
The facts are quite simple: in 2002, Apple registered its "iPhone" brand in China for software and computer components. In 2007 (the year Apple officially launched its phone in the United States), the Chinese company Xintong Tiandi Technology registered the "Iphone" trademark for leather goods, including mobile phone cases. Coincidence?
It is only in 2012 that Apple will take the case to the Chinese Trademark Office, because the whole thing is starting to look very much like counterfeiting. A first decision in 2013 considers that Apple cannot show that the "iPhone" brand was well-known on the Chinese market before 2007 (and rightly so, the phone was only sold in this territory in 2009). The office therefore decided to rule in favor of the Chinese company. Apple's appeal (no pun intended) to the Chinese judge did not succeed, and the latter has just ordered that the firm will have to share its brand in China.
Worse, it should in principle not be able to exploit it itself for leather goods and rely on Xintong Tiandi Technology. Xintong Tiandi Technology (?) has published a statement on its website stating that it is ready to work with Apple to make the iPhone brand as beneficial as possible for iPhone users in China. What a good idea: the rights to the Iphone name PLUS a forced partnership with one of the biggest companies in the world? What an opportunity... business would not jump on such an opportunity?
And finally, images of Iphone products from Xintong Tiandi Technology company. By the way, take the time to appreciate the little ® next to the brand name, which basically means: "Do not counterfeit, it's our original brand and ours alone! » :
