Chennai: Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Chennai, dismissed a petition challenging the trade mark of famous iPhone of Apple Inc of US.
Dismissing the plea, the board stated that the application is totally false and frivolous.
In the plea V.P. Balaji of iVoice Enterprises, Erode, sought direction to Deputy Registrar of Trademarks, Trade Marks Registry, New Delhi, for removal of trade mark “iPhone” registered in the name of “Apple, Inc”, California. He submitted that his company adopted the trademark “iFon” in 2007 for mobile phones/cellular phones and filed trademark application. As trademark “iFon” was opposed by Apple, Inc, Balaji claims that he was aggrieved by the Apple’s opposition and hence he filed the present petition.
He said Apple Inc was not proprietor of the trademark iPhone as it was originally conceived and adopted by InfoGear Technology Corporation in 1996 in respect of telephone and dialup internet portal products and obtained registration for the mark iPhone in United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In 2000, Cisco acquired the rights in the trademarks of iPhone from InfoGear. Apple Inc started filing trade mark application for iPhone from 2006 and in January 2007 it announced the launch of iPhone.
Opposing the petition, Apple, Inc, California, USA, submitted that Apple was incorporated in California on January 3, 1977, and it changed its name from Apple Computer Inc to Apple Inc in 2007. Since them it has grown substantially. It has been considered as most valuable US company of all time. In February 2016, the company had a market value of US $ 529 billion.
For the past 40 years Apple earned fiercely customer base and Apple’s branded goods and services became some of the most recognized and highly sought after in the world. The first application for registration of trademark iPhone was filed in India in 2002 for computer hardware and software. The Apple announced iPhone on January 9, 2007, and it has grown well known trade mark in the world including India.
The company stated that it is the legal proprietor of iPhone and obtained registrations across the globe.
The bench comprising its chairman Justice Manmohan Singh and technical member (trademarks) Sanjeev Kumar Chaswal said the rectification application is totally false and frivolous. Hence it is liable to be dismissed.
