Brazil gets Android-powered iPhone (sort of…)
Brazilian manufacturer IGB Electronica SA will soon start selling an Android-powered device known as the ‘IPHONE’
After applying for the trademark with a local regulator of patents in 2000, IGB Eletronica SA will soon begin selling an Android-powered handset called the IPHONE.
The patent regulator awarded the company the right to use the IPHONE name officially in 2008.
Reuters is reporting that IGB Eletronica SA has exclusive rights to the trademark ‘IPHONE’ in the local market, meaning there's very little Apple can actually do about it inside Brazil.
The company confirmed its intention to release a handset called the IPHONE via a securities filing.
‘The first model will be called "Neo One,"’ IGB said in a securities filing.
IGB Eletronica SA formed officially this year following the restructuring of Gradiente Eletronica SA, the company that secured the IPHONE trademark back in 2000.
‘The filing said Gradiente had foreseen the revolution in the convergence of voice and data over the Internet at the time, before Apple Inc.’s iPhone existed,’ reports Reuters.
Know Your Mobile has reached out to Apple for comment on this.
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