Brazilian electronics company offers up the 'IPHONE'
IGB Eletronica launches a device line it calls the "IPHONE," claiming that it has rights to use the name through 2018.
Brazil-based electronics company IGB Eletronica on Tuesday announced a new line of devices bearing the name "IPHONE."
The first of those devices will be called the Neo One, the company said inside a press release spotted earlier today by Reuters.
Product pages that went up later in the day provided more details about the quad-band device, which costs 599 Brazilian real (about $287 U.S. dollars), runs Google's Android 2.3.4, and sports a 320x480 screen.
The name is sure to draw the ire of Apple, which recently settled a multimillion dollar issue over the rights to the "iPad" trademark in China with a company called Proview. In a statement, IGB noted that it's been the exclusive rights holder to the name since 2008, a registration that goes through 2018.
Apple famously wrestled the rights to the iPhone name in the U.S. from Cisco Systems in early 2007, just months before the product's release. Cisco had sued Apple for trademark infringement immediately after the iPhone was unveiled at the annual Macworld conference in January that same year. In its complaint, Cisco said Apple had approached the company over the name a number of times, even using a shell company in an attempt to acquire the moniker. The two ended up settling in February 2007.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.