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Canadian Company Will Fight Apple for iPhone Trademark

Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 5:40 PM - by

The president of a Canadian company, Comwave, Yuval Barzakay, said that they are filing documents opposing Apple's intention to obtain the iPhone trademark in Canada. Comwave Telecomm, Inc., in Toronto, has been selling Internet phone service to customers since 2004 under the name iPhone. The details were published Thursday at Bloomberg News.

Mr. Barzakay went on to say in an interview that he thought their legal people were "in the driver's seat" but that until Apple actually offers the iPhone in Canada they have no reason to claim damages.

An Apple spokesperson said that Apple has nothing to announce at this time.

The Bloomberg article noted that while Comwave filed its application after Apple, if they can prove that they've used the name for a product prior to Apple's filing, the Canadian courts may side with Comwave.

During Apple's earnings call on January 17th, Apple's COO Tim Cook stated that "We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone..." as part of their argument in support of the iPhone trademark in the U.S.

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mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:42 pm

I hate the name iPhone. I'd love nothing better for them to pick something else. Great phone, but the name; DOA.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:24 am

Yeah. Just who owns the dumb name, Apple, Cisco, Comwave?

Geez. You'd think it was the second coming or something.

Rename it the iFone and get over them all!

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:12 am

Tiger wrote:
Yeah. Just who owns the dumb name, Apple, Cisco, Comwave?

Geez. You'd think it was the second coming or something.

Rename it the iFone and get over them all!

Keep the countries straight. There's no such thing as an universal trademark. According to Cisco, they own the trademark to "iPhone" in the US (and, perhaps, some other countries). According to Comwave, THEY own the trademark to "iPhone" in Canada. (FWIW, there is another US company selling "iPhone" devices--VOIP for hotels and the like. It looks like they were selling their iPhone before Cisco/Linksys announced theirs.) Another company is using the name for a VOIP service in the UK. Apple apparently has the trademark in a bunch of countries.

"iFone" wouldn't solve the problem, any more than calling a softdrink "Peppsy."

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:16 am

Whilst Apple's name refers to a Product used to connect to cellular networks, from what I understand of it, Comwave's use of the name is for a Service, and VOIP at that. There is also a US VOIP company called iphone that has yet to surface with a lawsuit.

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JonGl said:

member since 12 Jan 2006 with 113 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:27 am

Personally, I agree with the first poster--iPhone is a rather lame-sounding name. I know it's shorter than iPod Phone, but the latter just sounds better to me--iPhone... sorry. I don't like it, and haven't since it was first rumored--but then, I presumed it was just the result of wishful thinking... Why Apple chose to stick with the moniker, I do not know...

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:31 am

Everybody thought that iPod was a really dumb name and look how it caught on! However iPhone does sound rather unoriginal. Even iCell would sound better. Oh well.

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