Apple fights for the right to call iPhone an iPhone in Brazil

Nigam Arora – Forbes, 02/15/2013

It is true that you can buy an iPhone running Android and not iOS.  The phone comes unlocked and can be bought for about $300.  The phone features a 700MHz processor, a 5 megapixel rear camera, a 0.3 megapixel front camera, dual SIM support, and a 3.7 inch display.

Of course, Apple is having a fit over an iPhone running Android.  This particular iPhone is not manufactured by Apple but by a company by the name of IGB Eletronica domiciled in Brazil.  IGB was formed after the restructuring of a Brazilian electronics firm Gradiente Eletronica.  Gradiente had applied for exclusive rights to the name iPhone in Brazil in 2000.  Gradiente claims that it had foreseen the revolution of smartphones in 2000 long before Steve Jobs ever dreamed of iPhone.

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Apple challenges loss of iPhone trademark in Brazil

Reuters – 02/14/2013

Apple Inc, which lost the rights to its iPhone trademark in Brazil on Wednesday, is challenging the ruling by Brazil’s copyright regulator to prevent local firm Gradiente Eletronica SA from using the “iphone” brand name.

The regulator, Inpi, ruled on Wednesday that the rights to the trademark belong to Gradiente, prompting California-based Apple to request that the decision be reviewed in Latin America’s largest market.

Consumer electronics maker Gradiente had filed its request to use the “iphone” brand in 2000, seven years before Apple launched its smartphone, but received approval to use the trademark only in 2008.

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Apple loses Brazilian iPhone trademark ruling

BBC, 02/13/2013

Brazilian regulators have ruled that Apple does not have exclusive rights to use the “iPhone” trademark in the country.

The decision is the result of a local company, Gradiente Eletronica, registering the name in 2000, seven years before the US firm.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.

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Would Apple be hurt by a strike at Foxconn Brazil?

Lance Whitney – CNET, 04/26/2012

Around 2,500 workers at Foxconn’s plant in Jundiai in Sao Paulo, Brazil, could choose to strike on May 3 if management refuses to meet their demands.

Employees have been complaining of severe shortages in food and water and overcrowding on the buses used for transportation, according to the Journal de Jundia (English translation).

A director of the local union told the Journal that food has had to be sent in but that the quality is poor, and the lines to wait for a meal are long. Travel to work is also a problem for many.

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Apple’s iTunes inches closer to Brazil deal

Tom Murphy – Dow Jones Newswires, 11/30/2011

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is close to a deal with a Brazilian trade association that would bring iTunes to the Brazilian market, Brazil’s O Globo news organization reported Wednesday.

O Globo cited Brazilian Music Publishers Association President Michaela Couto as saying, “If all goes well, iTunes will be available in Brazil as early as December. At this point, it depends more on Apple than on us.”

The report said Apple has shied away from Latin America’s biggest country because of technical difficulties in collecting royalties.

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Report: Apple has opened a new iPad factory in Brazil

Leslie Horn – PC Magazine, 09/14/2011

Apple has reportedly ventured out of its manufacturing stronghold in China  to open an iPad factory in Brazil.

According to a report on Brazilian site UOL uncovered by MacStories, Brazil’s Minister of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante confirmed that the new plant is ready to start churning out Apple’s tablet, which will begin shipping in the country in December.

“At first many doubted, but it will be the first time that the [Apple] will produce iPads outside Chinese territory,” he said at a hearing with the country’s Commission of Economic Affairs. “We are taking a big step for digital inclusion in the country.”

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Foxconn has list of requirements for investing in iPhone, iPad production in Brazil

Apple Insider – Josh Ong, 05/03/2011

Apple manufacturer Foxconn reportedly has a list of requirements to be met by the Brazilian government before the company agrees to invest $12 billion in facilities that could eventually produce the iPad and iPhone in Brazil.

Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported recently that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn has communicated a list of needs to government officials, as noted by Forbes.

According to the report, the list includes:

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