Brazil's attorney general says Apple owns local "iPhone" trademark, not just who registered it first

In 2020 the Brazilian Supreme Court decided to accept the appeal of the local company IGB Eletrônica (also known as Gradiente) against Apple's iPhone trademark in Brazil. Now, it seems that the outcome of the appeal should not be too good for Gradiente, as the Brazilian Attorney General has sided with Apple, arguing that the iPhone trademark should belong to Apple and not to the Brazilian company.

Brazil's attorney general says Apple owns the "iPhone" trademark there, and it's not just about who registered it first

Brazilian Attorney General Augusto Aras said on Friday that Apple's iPhone is an important player in the global market, even though Gradiente applied for the trademark "iphone" in Brazil years before Apple launched the iPhone, Tilt reported. Therefore, he argued that trademark rights cannot be based on who registered first, and in this case, the "supervisory context" must be taken into account.

IT Home has learned that the Brazilian Attorney General's statement has been sent to the Brazilian Supreme Court, which will ultimately determine which company will have all the rights to the iPhone trademark in Brazil. However, it remains unclear when the case will actually be heard.

IGB Eletrônica, also known as Gradiente, is a Brazilian electronics company that is now undergoing a judicial restructuring. The company applied for the trademark "Gradiente iphone" in 2000 with plans to launch a new phone, but the application was only approved in 2008, when Apple's iPhone was launched.

In 2012, Gradiente released a new Android smartphone under the name "Gradiente iphone" and, not surprisingly, Apple asked Brazil's trademark regulator to declare Gradiente's registered trademark invalid. At the time, Apple claimed that the success of the iPhone made Gradiente decide to use the "iphone" brand.

Gradiente thus eventually lost the exclusive rights to the "iphone" trademark, but the company appealed to the Brazilian Supreme Court. Although there is no court date yet, everything indicates that Apple will probably win the case in Brazil.

Interestingly, Apple had sued a healthy recipe company called Prepear for infringing on Apple's trademark by using a "fruit-shaped logo". The two companies eventually reached an agreement to let Prepear keep its trademark as long as the fruit leaves were slightly different from those of Apple.