- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 05:09 06:23 12:30 15:54 18:32 19:46
The Indian company which owns the 'iFon' brand (pictured above) is legally challenging Apple, manufacturer of the iPhone.
It looks like Apple’s iPhone brand is being threatened in India.
Apple is being legally challenged by an Indian enterprise, which owns the trademark for the similar sounding ‘iFon’ brand.
iVoice Ventures Private Limited, which is based in Erode in India’s Tamil Nadu state, has filed a rectification petition with the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to have Apple’s ‘iPhone’ trademark removed from India’s trademark registry.
Speaking to Emirates 24|7 over telephone from India, Venky V, one of the four partners of iVoice Ventures, said, “We are very confident that our petition will be accepted by the court. We are only fighting for our rights.”
According to him, iVoice Ventures recently acquired the intellectual property rights of a pending trademark application from iVoice Enterprises and title transfer pertaining to rectification petition pending before the IPAB.
The partners feel that they can successfully take on Apple at least in the Indian market.
According to Venky, the company was formed in 2006 to bring about a smartphone revolution in India.
“Back then it was Nokia which was the number one firm, with 90 per cent of the mobile phone market share. Apple was nowhere in the picture. That was when we first launched our smartphone under the brand name ‘iFon’ as an abbreviation of ‘India Phone’,” he said.
But by the time the company’s trademark applications came up for registration, Apple had already released its first iPhone.
“First Apple filed a lawsuit with the TMI opposing our application for a trademark for iFon,” he said.
“That was when our problems started. All our overseas partners and investors withdrew and we had to discontinue most of our ongoing projects,” said Venky.
The company, having now acquired the trademark for iFon, is taking the fight back to Apple. It has now applied for a rectification petition asking why Apple should not be blocked from using the iPhone brand in India.
The court has now asked Apple to respond.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.