Toronto based Comwave Telecom Inc. have settled a dispute with Apple Inc. over the iPhone name. Comwave branded it's voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone service "iPhone" 4 years ago, before Apple's touch pad smart phone hit the market.
“Whenever you have a very large enterprise like Apple and they put in $20-million to $30-million a quarter into advertising, it doesn't matter whose name it is, eventually they will own it,” said Yuval Barzakay Comwave's founder and President.
“It's all about perception. There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have been exposed to our iPhone over the course of a few years, but within a very short time, the hysteria on the Apple iPhone has almost caused what I call reverse confusion, in that the perception is that the iPhone name was Apple's [first] and not Comwave's,” he said.
In their agreement Apple will receive sole rights to the iPhone name in Canada, and Comwave has agreed to phase out its use of the name by Nov. 9th.
The Globe and Mail has more here.
The Globe and Mail has more here.
