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A Mexican telecommunications firm named iFone declared victory in a trademark battle, exposing the US company to a potential compensation payment.
The Mexican firm said in a statement that a court denied Apple''s bid to protect the iPhone name in a case that began in 2009, when iFone sued the California-based company because the similar-sounding names caused confusion, News24 reports.
“It is the third time that Apple loses and this demonstrates the legal truth: iFone is within its full right to use its brand,” the statement said.
According to the report, Apple introduced the iPhone to the Mexican market in 2007, four years after the Mexican telecom company says it registered the name iFone.
The lawyer for iFone, Eduardo Gallart, was quoted as saying in Milenio newspaper that Apple will have to compensate the Mexican company for the use of the iPhone name.
Gallart said the law sets a floor rate of 40 per cent of the sale price of a service that is found to have violated the rules.
