Sources Claim Apple May Lose iPhone Trademark In Brazil

We mentioned in December of 2012 that a Brazilian company had launched an Android-powered smart phone called the iPhone. The smartphone is from a company called Gradiente and I'm sure most people expected Apple to be getting its legal assault ready. According to one source, Apple may be too late to protect its iPhone name in Brazil.

CNET reports that an unnamed source says that the Brazilian Institute of Intellectual Property plans to award an exclusive trademark for the iPhone name to Gradiente. The company claims to have filed for the iPhone trademark years before Apple launched its market changing smartphone. Gradiente is a Brazilian company.

However, the Brazilian company didn't offer a product using iPhone name until December after Apple's product was well entrenched all around the world. Gradiente says that it has legal rights to use the name through 2018. Odds are the Brazilian company will give up the trademark when Apple starts throwing money its way.

Apple has offered no official comment on the trademark issues in Brazil. Apple originally acquired the iPhone name in the US from Cisco in February 2007. A Gradiente official has reportedly said that he was "open to a dialogue" for a deal similar to what Apple put together for the iPad trademark in China with Proview. That deal cost Apple $60 million.

[via CNET]