Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Loses right? They never had it to begin with in Brazil. Also, I may not remember it accurately, but didn't Apple have to buy the rights for the iPhone name in US from Cisco, too? I don't think it was publicized that much back then, but I think I remember something along those lines.

View on HN

You are correct. Just adding, Brazilian IP law is not similar to the american. The trademarks must be very specific and cannot be used for more than, usually, a single product. That said, you can't own a word, you can obtain exclusivity of naming a specific good (in that case, a cell phone).

I own two trademarks here and guess what, not even the domain name I managed to reclaim, the owner uses the same name for a different type of business which I don't own the exclusivity rights.

Brazilian IP law is one of the most free in the word and among many things, software cannot be patented, non-specific, generic ideas are not even evaluated for a patent. Music can be freely played and shared unless you are doing it commercially.

This is why I can't even download bass tabs on most sites, RIAA managed to block brazilians from 40% of youtube, etc.

This is what patent laws should be everywhere.

Brazilian here, and I think not...

There are several cases here where an inventor receives no money at all and a lot of people get rich with it's invention, because of this law.

I think it's too loose and also our courts are terrible, there is a case from a guy that waited 20 years to win a first instance sue against several phone companies and after losing it they just appealed... so he will have to wait 10 more years, and probably die or go bankrupt.

Source: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/1161871-inventor-do-bin...

The iPhone name was first used by Infogear in 1998, which was acquired by Cisco. Apple and Cisco settled a trademark dispute over it in 2007 so that both companies can continue using the name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone

Presumably the trademark is useless to Linksys now, as everyone associates the name with Apple.

I think you're thinking of IOS.

Actually Linksys had an iPhone.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/18/cisco-not-apple-announces...

It's both. I believe Apple used the iPhone name and then had a spat with Cisco about it, which was settled. When they wanted to introduce the term iOS, they worked out a deal with Cisco beforehand (I was an intern at Cisco at the time and remember hearing about it).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com