iPhone in Canada: The Ten Troubling Trademarks
1:51AM, March 19, 2008 - [ Permalink]
There has been much discussion online about how trademark issues are keeping the iPhone out of Canada, so I got curious and went to have a look and see what I could find over at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) - who should win an award for such a cluttered and ugly website. This directed me to the TradeMarks Database where I could run a search on the iPhone. You won't see any links to the actual Trademark records because they require session IDs (way to go), but they are easy enough to search for yourselves
Date of reference: Apple's iPhone was announced on January 9th, 2007.
There are a total of ten iPhone-related trade-mark applications, listed below in order of filing.
- FILED: April 16, 1998
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 0875335
- APPLICANT: Cisco Systems, Inc.
- STATUS: ABANDONED - SECTION 36
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE
- Abandoned - Section 36: June 11, 2003
- WARES: (1) Computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks.
- FILED: October 14, 2004
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1234665
- APPLICANT: Apple Inc
- STATUS: OPPOSED
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE
- INTERESTED PARTIES:
- OLD OWNER: Apple Computer, Inc.
- OPPONENT: Comwave Telecom Inc.
- WARES: (1) Handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data; MP3 players; handheld computers,... [snip]
- FILED: November 14, 2005
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1279514
- APPLICANT: COMWAVE TELECOM INC.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE
- SERVICES: (1) Local and long distance telephone services, voice over internet protocol telephone services.
- CLAIMS: Used in CANADA since at least as early as June 07, 2004.
- FILED: January 24, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1332390
- APPLICANT: COMWAVE TELECOM INC
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE
- WARES: (1) Digital telephone adapters; analog telephone adapters; telephones.
- FILED: January 24, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1332389
- APPLICANT: COMWAVE TELECOM INC
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE MOBILE
- WARES: (1) Digital telephone adapters; analog telephone adapters; telephones.
- FILED: July 9, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1354951
- APPLICANT: Apple Inc.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: IPHONE
- WARES: (1) Clothing, footwear, and headwear. (2) Periodicals, publications, and manuals.
- SERVICES: (1) Telecommunication access services; communication by computer; transmission of data and of information by electronic means, broadcasting or transmission of radio and television programs; ... [snip] (very long)
- FILED:August 15, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1359891
- APPLICANT: Apple Inc.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: (image of iPhone with Works with iPhone)
- WARES: (1) Full line of electronic and mechanical parts and fittings for mobile phones and/or other portable and handheld digital electronic devices for recording, organizing, transmitting, ... [snip]
- FILED: October 24, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1368848
- APPLICANT: Apple Inc.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: (image of front of iPhone)
- WARES: (1) Handheld mobile digital electronic devices for use as a mobile phone, digital audio and video player, handheld computer, personal digital assistant, electronic organizer, electronic notepad, electronic calendar, calculator, and camera, for sending and receiving electronic mail and other digital data, and for accessing the Internet.
- FILED: December 21, 2007
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1377036
- APPLICANT: Apple Inc.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: (image of Apple Symbol & iPhone)
- WARES: (1) Handheld mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, electronic mail, and other digital data; for use as a digital format audio player, and for use as a handheld computer, personal digital assistant, ... [snip]
- FILED: January 22, 2008
- APPLICATION NUMBER: 1380077
- APPLICANT: iPhoneNow.ca, Inc.
- STATUS: SEARCHED
- TRADE-MARK: iPhoneNow.ca
- WARES: (1) Handheld mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, electronic mail, and other digital data; for use as a digital format audio player, and for use as a handheld computer, personal digital assistant, ... [snip]
- SERVICES: (1) Telecommunication access services; communication by computer; transmission of data and of information by electronic means, broadcasting or transmission of radio and television programs; provision of telecommunications connections to computer databases and the Internet; ... [snip]
Now, I'm no trademark lawyer, or any kind of lawyer at all for that matter, but from what all this *looks* like to me is once Cisco abandoned their trademark in 2003, Apple filed their first iPhone trademark October 2004. Ten months later, Comwave Telecom files their opposition to it and three months after that, files their first Iphone trademark, claiming that they had been using this mark since June 7, 2004, which will have to bear some investigation.
After some rooting around in the Wayback Machine, I came across and archived version of Comwave's iPhone page pulled on June 22, 2004, that looks almost exactly like the Comwave's current iPhone page, since Archive.org doesn't archive flash files, it pulls them from the existing site, so I wouldn't expect the flash files on the "archived" version of the site to accurately depict what was there.
If you watch some of the videos on the news page, you'll note the videos are undated, but seem old enough.
The existence of the 2004 archived version of the iPhone HTML paged does, in theory give some credence to Comwave's argument that they've been using it since 2004, and the video interviews show that they have been reasonably diligent in promoting it.
What must be difficult for Comwave, though is the fact that they now have to maintain two websites- one for Canada and one for the US (well, just two directory structures, but you know what I mean) because they can't use the name iPhone in the US.
I *do* wonder though, if someone from the US called Comwave and tried to sign up for an iPhone system.. Would Comwave sell them one? Would selling a US client an iPhone get them in hot-water in the US?
Strategically, it makes sense for Comwave to re-brand their iPhone product to something they can use worldwide, and sell the trade-mark to Apple because their trademark in Canada is pretty much worthless compared to the marketing engine that is Apple. I sincerely think that if we polled the Canadian population, almost none would identify iPhone with Comwave's product.
Comwave, please, let's move this forward so we can focus on the next issue with getting Apple's iPhone in Canada - getting Rogers to have some decent rate plans. I'm content to wait a while, though, I'm still giddy with joy every time I use my iPod Touch. ;-)
