Canadian iPhone delayed by trademark dispute?

Mirroring the premature trademark dispute surrounding the launch of the Cisco iPhone in the US, Apple's Canadian launch of its respective iPhone could be delayed due to a trademark dispute with a product that shares the same name as Apple's gadget. Comwave Telecom in Toronto owns the trademark rights to the name "iPhone" in Canada for use on its VoIP products and services, and has filed a complaint with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office over Apple's application for the trademark rights of the name for its future Canadian version of the iPhone. Sounds like a case of how much Apple is willing to pay, or how long they're willing to delay.

[EMaster @ Oct 14th 2007 1:26PM]

Comwave???? That place is so shady it's not even funny. Even if the iPhone comes to Canada what good is it? You can buy an unlocked iPhone for 550 unlocked in Toronto. Plus, we do not have unlimited Data plans unlike our American counterparts like T-Mobile whose gives you unlimited Hotspots and Internet for 20 bucks a month. I might just move to the USA for their better cell plans.

[Matt @ Oct 14th 2007 2:42PM]

There's guides on the net on how to unlock it... I only paid $436US ($436Canadian) in Buffalo for iPhone, brought it back here to Toronto and unlocked it myself.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Oct 14th 2007 7:37PM]

@Matt

$436 US is $430.107 (or just $430.11) Canadian.

[Jonathan Norris @ Oct 14th 2007 1:30PM]

Its just getting ridiculous now... can we please just get the freaking iPhone allready.

[Ireland @ Oct 14th 2007 5:33PM]

No, and the above story tells you why.

[Khris @ Oct 14th 2007 6:50PM]

Mine will be in Edmonton by Friday.

[Mike @ Oct 15th 2007 12:59PM]

Have had my iPhone since the 11th of July. Got it on eBay! Been using for the past month on Rogers after IPSF unlock.
Amazing phone!!

What are you waiting for?

Do it!

[jonathan @ Oct 15th 2007 4:43PM]

Regardless of whether we canadians have the mobile service of our friends in the US. Call the Apple iPhone - the ApplePhone. We will all know what it really is the iPhone. Give us the choice to buy it without having to suffer the perils of software updates.

Besides it seems from Comwave's comments...they would mind selling the name for a price. So really do they care about their branding or money. Don't get me wrong they have the right to sell or retain their name, it seems greed is stopping the Canadian population from enjoying or hating the iPhone (the apple one).

[GoreTEX @ Oct 14th 2007 1:33PM]

Are they going to sell it at $600 CDN then drop it to $400 like they did to those American early-adopters/chumps?

[James @ Oct 14th 2007 3:37PM]

No they'll sell it for 800$ and drop it to 600$ because every price in canada is jacked up 25% for no reason. The US to CAN Dollar rates are almost identical so They(the company's) get 100% profit from it.

[Bru @ Oct 24th 2007 1:13AM]

@ James
"For no reason"

Take economics, tard.

[avenger @ Oct 28th 2007 10:38AM]

This has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with a captive market. It doesn't help the Canadian economy to overcharge Canadians for no reason other than to fatten the wallet of men whose wallets are already fat enough. Shipping is no more expensive to Canada than to many parts of the United States - most of our population lives within a couple hundred kilometres of the border.

This isn't the result of market forces - this is an artificial price difference maintained by pure greed when it should have been adjusted long ago. Sure Wal*Mart has to take a hit - they've been making profit hand over fist on our backs for the last few months.

Just because you failed a high school economics course doesn't mean you're an economist, douche.

Try ethics next time.

[Jonas @ Nov 2nd 2007 7:46PM]

ahahaha well stated

[tony @ Oct 14th 2007 1:37PM]

Well, we have more/make more money then you canadian chumps so in all reality the $200 was no big deal.

[marnichol @ Oct 14th 2007 6:49PM]

hey tony you know canadian money is worth more that green back of yours!?!?!?!

[eric @ Oct 14th 2007 1:42PM]

Thank you for perpetuating the stereotype that people from the U.S.A. are stupid. As a U.S. citizen, I appreciate all your hard effort.

[jroc @ Oct 14th 2007 1:48PM]

Yeah well too bad that "money" is only legal tender, it is just worthless paper. Ours is too but paper is just paper in the end. Besides the Federal Reserve is driving America towards another great depression on purpose.

[Goatee Man @ Oct 14th 2007 2:42PM]

Tony, you do know that the Canadian dollar just went higher than the American, right? And as a red-blooded US citizen myself, the first thing that came to mind was "good job, Canada".

The US and Canada have always had excellent relations (for crying out loud, we've got the world's longest unguarded border) and you should realize that what you said was absolutely ridiculous. You're an insult to Americans everywhere.

Idiot.

[Sean @ Oct 15th 2007 1:53AM]

hmm, could you please explain why the canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar now? mr. rich american.

[TEM @ Oct 14th 2007 3:05PM]

Actually, Tony is right and you all are wrong.

Americans not only make more than Canadians, because of the differences in tax rates, Americans keep more of their money where Americans tend to have 15-25% greater disposable income than Canadians.

BTW, the value of the dollar has nothing to do with relative wealth, it is disposable income which is the true test.

[Jim @ Oct 14th 2007 3:32PM]

Disposable income also includes what people have to spend on medical/health insurance, etc. The take-home differences between Canada and the US are not so great - except when it comes to prices of goods such as consumer goods like cars. It's crazy that, for example, the same model of an HDTV or a BMW (i.e. goods imported by both countries usually on the same ships) differ in price by over 30%. An economy of scale argument can't support such a difference and nor can the parity of the dollar. The issue is not just that Canadian prices are necessarily too high (they are!), but US prices are too low. This will change if the US dollar continues to lose ground against other major currencies (it's lost 40% or more in the past 18 months). This should help with the trade gap as Americans find prices of home produced products stay the same whereas imports go up.

Back to the issue with the iPhone. in Canada Comwave has actually tried to ride on the iPhone wave of awareness/euphoria in the media. It's probably gotten them nowhere. Apple can simply avoid paying them a cent (Canadian or US) by using a sticker to cover the "i" on boxes sold in Canada. An "Apple Phone" would have all of the necessary buzz....

BTW, dear US phone companies (even ATT), please buy out Ted Rogers and give us your data rates. We're dying up here! :-)

[martythemaniak @ Oct 14th 2007 3:48PM]

Due to Canada's lower gini coefficient and recent gains of the CAD, median household income in Canada is now much higher than in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income#International_statistics

What this means simply is that your average Canadian is better off than your average American, despite some technically correct but very misleading indicators like GPD/capita.

[Jamar0303 @ Oct 15th 2007 8:24AM]

I'd much rather have DoCoMo or Softbank buy out Rogers. Then Canada'd have something to brag about compared to the US.

[szamot @ Oct 15th 2007 10:38AM]

I think you mean "we owe" more money than you Canadians. Owing money is not having money, unless you mean we have more money to REPAY. That would make sense.

[Rayburn @ Oct 14th 2007 1:44PM]

engadget's story is a liiiitle misleading

Comwave DOES NOT OWN the iPhone trademark in Canada -- in fact, Apple applied for it FIRST. Comwave just happens to have been using it longer and has filed a complaint with CIPO. How much of a case Comwave has is unclear.

[Jeff Lewis @ Oct 14th 2007 10:33PM]

Based on what I've read, you're incorrect. Comwave claims they were using the trademark in Canada a full two months before Apple registered it. And under Canadian law, you can't fully register a trademark until you start advertising it - something Apple didn't do until Jan 2007.

All Comwave has to do is show material evidence of serious advertising using the name iPhone before Jan 2007, which should be fairly easy to do.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/10/11/tech-iphone-trademark.html

[jcwacky @ Oct 14th 2007 1:49PM]

Check out Comwave's beast here: http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/iPhone_mobile.htm

[EMaster @ Oct 14th 2007 2:37PM]

Wow! That thing's Hardcore! Gonna switch IMMEDIATELY to Comwave because of that phone.. /Sarcasm.

[Tyler Strembitsky @ Oct 14th 2007 3:57PM]

Haha, check the top right corner, [*Sold out]

Pretty funny.
ONLY $129!!

[Sam Stone @ Oct 14th 2007 3:58PM]

S'pose it contains a non-crippled calender app :P

[Bruno @ Oct 14th 2007 2:01PM]

You don't need to "register" a trademark to have claim to one. You just have to use the mark and include the "tm" to claim your rights.

The first to use it controls it. If someone else (like Apple) tries to register the mark, the first user can file a complaint and get the application dropped/canceled.

[NG @ Oct 14th 2007 3:10PM]

really?
you mean.. i can just tradmark e.g. "£$% TM" just like that without paying?

[Bruno @ Oct 14th 2007 3:17PM]

No, you can't. The mark must meet a number of requirements/criteria and must be for a specific product (or service in the case of a service mark). You must also actually USE it. That means have a real product or service available, advertising materials, etc. Then you must defend it to maintain it. That means if anyone ever infringes you have to send out cease and desist notices right away.

Hopefully Comwave sent Apple such noticed when they first announced the iPhone at Macworld. If it can be found that COmwave have allowed Apple to be infringing while they sat by and did nothing, their rights to the trademark will be invalidated and the path will be clear for Apple.

There's a ton of good trademark information out there. Start by looking at the US Patent and Trademark office web site because the Canadian system is about equal.

[Jeff Lewis @ Oct 14th 2007 10:39PM]

Bruno - actually, Comwave wouldn't need to defend their TM outside of Canada - so, since Apple has never sold the iPhone, nor advertised it within Canada, they don't need to do anything until that changes.

What's happened is that Apple had registered a TM in Canada and Comwave is defending against that.

[Tony @ Oct 14th 2007 2:05PM]

Who TF is CUMWAVE anyhow? Sounds like a 3rd rate porn studio.

[bugmat @ Oct 14th 2007 3:57PM]

i see you can neither spell nor read well...carry on chap!

[FireFox @ Oct 14th 2007 2:06PM]

I find this quite boring.. that iPhone is killing it self

[Charles @ Oct 14th 2007 2:58PM]

In Puerto Rico the situation is worst. No word yet on when the iPhone will be available.

This is ridiculous since:

1. The main cell phone service provider in PR is AT&T with full coverage even 3G.

2. Puerto Rico is a US commonwealth, ruled by the same government.

3. Communications are regulated by the FCC.

In Puerto Rico I can go to any Radioshack or CompUSA and purchase all other iPods including the touch exept the iPhone.
I can go to any ATT or radiohsack and purchase any of their phones except the iPhone.

Canada has different goverment, different service providers and different market prices.

[NG @ Oct 14th 2007 3:07PM]

sounds like someone wants a piece of that big cake "again"

[jessy @ Oct 14th 2007 3:20PM]

i know, is it so sad how apple always tries to take away from microsofts earnings?

[Mark @ Oct 14th 2007 6:08PM]

Cake?! What about Apple iPie?

[memodude @ Oct 18th 2007 12:06PM]

the cake is a lie.

[Bruno @ Oct 14th 2007 3:22PM]

The bottom line is Apple either didn't perform research with due diligence before naming their product or they intentionally set out to infringe the existing trademarks (hoping they would not be challenged which means they would take oveer the marks). In my not professional legal opinion, Apple really have no solution other than to settle and pay. Rightfully so as well, since Comwave has been using "iPhone" in Canada for years, including in TV and print advertising. Even longer than the blogosphere nicknamed Apple's then un-announced phone product "iPhone"

[john @ Oct 14th 2007 3:41PM]

By the time "iphone" is sorted out, competitors will have a better and cheaper product available in Canada.
I for one am certainly will NOT buy if the 3rd party apps install issue is not worked out.

ALSO - CDN Data plans are rediculously expensive. Greedy Rogers would also have to bend over backwards to bring iphone to our igloos. I doubt this will happen since its Roger$ doubt that is at stake...

[Shawn @ Oct 14th 2007 4:20PM]

Cool, a story I submitted actually made it on here :)

[Baz @ Oct 14th 2007 5:05PM]

Comwave is a minor issue.

The bigger issue issue that there is only one company in Canada that supplies GSM service here (under various labels) and that they are unwilling to offer an unlimited data plan at a price that is even nearly affordable - and until they do, the iPhone is a gimmicky paperweight here in Canada. Their data plans are a huge cash cow for them and the iPhone needs unlimited data access to be even vaguely useful.

The other wrinkle is that this wireless provider has their own ringtone and music download service and its highly unlikely they're willing on letting that profit go in favour of Apple's iTunes, even if that means missing out on the iPhone.

Hey, there's a reason that the iPod Touch was rushed up to Canada. If iPhone is dead in the water here, then Apple needs some handheld conduit for those easily blinded by gimmicky devices to access iTunes.

[Nomi @ Oct 14th 2007 5:20PM]

Rogers is canceling their music service next year because it has so far been a failure. I can't find a link, but will post if I do.

[Baz @ Oct 15th 2007 8:58AM]

Well if that's the case, then the 'official' iPhone still won't make it to Canada till then - and then there is still the significant hurdle of the data plan costs.

The GSM provider has nothing that even vaguely resembles the AT&T Plan at $60 (and that too is overpriced) and to use their data service a la carte as 'unlimited' would cost more than the GNP of some small countries.

Meanwhile, Bell Canada (CDMA) is madly promoting it 'unlimited' data plan for PCs and its wireless card at $75/month. Still too dear, but I guess an allowable expense for corporate users...

[William @ Oct 14th 2007 5:54PM]

I live in Toronto and I am overwhelmed by all these billboards touting "The iPhone is Here". I get a little heart attack and find out at the bottom right hand corner in the most minute size "comwave". More like "conwave".

[GameboyRMH @ Oct 14th 2007 11:27PM]

OMG! That would piss me off badly, and I'm no big fan of the iPhone. Even if I'd never heard of Comwave before (only heard of them because they hold the trademark for iPhone) I'd hate them a lot after that.