Company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), received an extremely hard blow from China during the past days, there a local court decided that a Chinese company can use the name iPhone for any other products that are not part of the mobile phone category.
Apple sued the company Xintong Tiandi Technology a few years ago due to the fact that it holds a trademark patent for the name iPhone, various bags, mobile phone cases and other leather products being sold under the smartphone name Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),.
Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), wanted to obtain exclusive rights to the name iPhone in China, but the local courts have never won the case, so in the end there will be various leather products with the name iPhone and they will be sold legally in China, but not in other areas of the world.
In 2002, Apple submitted an application to register the name iPhone as a trademark in China, but the registration came only in 2013 and only for one product category, the company Xintong Tiandi submitted a similar application in 2007, it was approved in 2010, but only for leather products.
Apple no longer exclusively owns the iPhone name in China. The California tech giant recently lost a trademark suit against a Chinese company, which now holds the right to make and sell handbags and other leather products branded "IPHONE."
The motivation of the Chinese authorities for refusing to cancel Xintong Tiandi's trademark patent is based on the fact that in 2007, when their application was submitted, the iPhone was not popular in China, it being launched in the country only in 2009, Apple not being able to prove that the name it was widely known before that request was filed.
Thanks to this decision, the company Xintong Tiandi decided that it is willing to collaborate with Apple to launch accessories under this brand, but of course the Americans will not want to do this, although they could decide to buy the patent from the Chinese.
Considering the pain of those from Cupertino to build a reputation in China and make the iPhone popular, this decision will greatly complicate the situation in the country and will ultimately lead to the deception of many people who will think they are buying Apple products , when in the end it won't be like that.
