iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China?
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 2nd 2009 3:34PM
posted July 2nd 2009 3:34PM
Apple's on-again, off-again deal with China Unicom to officially bring the iPhone to China may still be up in the air, but it looks like it could now also be facing some trademark issues that could potentially further hold up its release. Apparently, China's Hanwang Technology owns the trademark for "i-phone" in the country, which could force Apple to make a deal with 'em before it enters the market (sound familiar?). Interestingly, Apple does actually own an "iPhone" trademark in China, but it apparently only covers computer hardware and software, while Hanwang's trademark covers mobile phones. According to Hanwang, however, the two aren't actually in talks just yet, and it's not saying what it plans to do if Apple decides to go crazy and announce a move into China without its blessing.
[Via mocoNews.net]
[Via mocoNews.net]
I bet Meziu has a previous filing for the trademark...
name it the chiPhone
Wait, wait... what? The Chinese have a problem with an outside product infringing on one of *their* trademarks?!
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
(sigh)
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-No, they're trying to make money off a huge freaking company.
Dude. i-phone? obviously they registered that to take advantage of Apple entering the Chinese market at some future date.
This is a cash grab, pure and simple.
Lulzy, considering China has NO regard for any trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc. anywhere else in the world. Greedy, stinking S.O.B.s.
Just read car and driver's review of a Chinese performance tire. Dead last. The Michelin PS2 did better in the wet than the Chinese one did in the dry. haha. got a long way to go, guys. Maybe advertising "mad performancez" is enough in China, but here we actually test stuff.
China has trademarking laws? That's news to me.
Nah. There's no rules in China. Unless the Olympics are on, and then everybody better standup straight and no defecating in the street. Strict, no?
iPhone is assembled in China
I fail to your point or how this relates to the article.
I would call it Knock-Off. That will serve them right.
there are trademarks in china?!?!
Very real and very enforceable and very costly to get. I have done it. Educate yourself people before spouting off.
oh the irony!
Anyone knows if that company actually does anything with their iPhone trademark or do they just plan on trying to commit highway robbery against Apple?
the article mentions they sold a phone under the i-phone trademark.
The population of China is 1.3 billion. Just over 1 billion is 15 years and older. That's a whole lotta iphones.
they must populate like rabbits,
Need to find the nearest condom dispenser?
Theres an a-pp for that ? Or is it ?
you have no idea what the per-capita income in China is, do you.
@John
Most of these people don't have a clue regarding anything China, let alone per capita income. I'd be shocked if more than half of these fools could even point it out on a map.
The similarity of the name iPhone would make it illegal to sell Apple's smartphone under that name in China, said Wang Hao, general manager of BSFD, an intellectual property law agency in Beijing.
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There's something about this sentence that defies belief :)
But I like that a law firm starts with BS and leaves the F and D up to creative interpretation.
"Smuggled iPhones are already extremely popular among wealthy, urban Chinese. There are already over 1 million iPhones in China, according to an estimate from consulting firm Ovum."
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That's heaps (if true). Would be interesting to see how they got those stats.
Not letting the fact that a dozen people have already said it stop me...
The Chinese trample on US brands' trademarks All. The. Time. So who cares?
So many idiots on here it's not even funny. Yes, the Chinese produce knock-offs of US designed products ( which are probably made in China ), but they produce them to sell in China, they don't go marketing them in the US.
Trying this one more time.
The stuff comes over here all the time. I have a copy of Windows 97 in storage somewhere, and a copy of Star Wars Episode 1 on Video CD with Chinese writing all over it. I got them both in the US for the sheer novelty of them.
But that's irrelevant. China is one of the biggest markets in the world. That they should be allowed to make these knock-off products there isn't OK just because they're mostly sold there.
No one.
If you need to "run and hide behind the teacher" to survive in life and always expect things to be fair... well you'll just live out your days as a writer on a blog in the west. Count for nothing and amount to nothing.
Life ain't fair and that is good. You should have to work double hard and be double creative to survive and excel - not rely on some bull shit patent or law that someone else (tax payers) have to pay to enforce.
The only people that moan about copyright are those that have no intrinsic value in what they do and what they can achieve. Ever wonder why top execs don't have trademarks on them as people.... they can't be replicated. What they do can't be copied.
If your product can be replicated and you want to stop that as a form of creating a revenue stream or business - then change lines of work. Do something that is not akin to inventing the bloody obvious and do something that is intrinsically linked to the value of the people that are involved.
The world has moved beyond an economy of just shipping widgets about under tightly controlled circumstances.
The iPhone is knock of the iphone-knockoff, eh?
China should consider how much money they owe apple... with all their fake "iphones" "Ai-Phones"
How about Dragon symbol
Interestingly Apple does not own the Trademark to iPhone in the US
http://tii.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=494853
Looks like they were rejected again for it in the US. But that did not stop them from rolling out the iPhone here.
Wait til Apple and the other companies find out they don't "own" ANYTHING in China LOL!
Oh - the scared little americans loosing their jobs in the global knowledge economy and neo industrial age are bringing out all the well versed, reasoned, educated and factually sound geo political analysis of China.
Go back to the party kegs children - your ignorance is beyond myopic.
AMERICA! F*CK YEAH!
who cares!!! iPhone is not regular mobile phone!
it's iPod+netbook almost.
how about gaming device??
it's too good to be staying under "mobile" category.
I think apple truely trademark lowercased prefix "i" internationally.
why don't everyone acknowledge that??!!
Apple should just trademark iPhone CHiPhone in CHINA.
The ultimate phone for CHiNA, if you know what i mean. it'll still sell~ The next problem is the price, APPLE.
How can they claim infringement when the China trademark is "i-Phone" and Apple's is "iPhone" without the dash, it is similar yes, but no the exact same, so what gives? anyone?
*facepalm*