After Trademark Dispute, Mexican Carriers Can No Longer Use iPhone Name In Ads

An anonymous reader writes "The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) on Thursday announced it has absolved Apple of wrongdoing in a trademark lawsuit surrounding the iPhone's infringement of a local telecommunications company marketing the phonetically identical 'iFone' brand. The logic behind the ruling was based on the difference in the two companies' markets. While iFone sells telecommunications services, Apple sells smartphones (but not actual telecommunications service). Because cellular carriers offer telecommunications services, the IMPI ruled that carriers have to remove the word 'iPhone' from all marketing materials within the next 15 days."

wow

[Charliemopps]

The summary is VERY misleading.

Real summary:
There was a telecom company named IFone.
4yrs later along came Apple with their IPhone.
Carriers in Mexico that competed with IFone, started carrying IPhones, and they started advertising as such.
Apple sued to try and take the trademark from the company. Even though the name clearly predated Apples.
IFone counter sued, and said that the name was confusing customers as to where to get their service.

The court said Apple could keep the name because they are in different industries. But the cross-advertising did, in fact, confuse consumers, so other Telecoms could not advertise with the word IPhone.

All this ruling does is let Apple continue to sell their phones in Mexico, and bar telecoms for advertising it along with their service.
IFone can still sue for damages. Apple will likely settle out of court as it's pretty clear they are going to lose.