After Trademark Dispute, Mexican Carriers Can No Longer Use iPhone Name In Ads 53
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."
Re:Seems correct (Score:4, Insightful)
Er... Why would Apple sue vendor using the Apple trademark to sell Apple products? That's what trademarks are *for*.
This is more like, imagine the iPhone was called instead the SpryntPhone. Sprint, the *carrier*, would object to Verizon and AT&T selling "SpyrntPhones" because it sounds like "Sprint Phones". They wouldn't object to those carriers selling "Samsung" phones because that doesn't affect their trademark.
Re:Seems correct (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not familiar with Mexican law either but these laws are pretty well unified by international treaties. You cannot use another company's trademark in your advertising material unless you have permission.
Bullshit, actually. You can use trademarks all day long without permission, so long as you are referring to the actual products instead of some knock-off, nor using them in any other misleading way.