Apple may face iPhone trademark issue in Japan

Japan's largest intercom maker, Aiphone Co., is said to have approached Apple to discuss the possibility that the iPhone violate its ''Aiphone'' trademark.

Kyodo World Service reports that Aiphone, which is listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, claims that Apple's audio-centric iPhone handset may infringe on its long-standing trademark.

The Nagoya-based company is said to own the rights to use ''Aiphone'' in Japan and some 70 foreign countries as the trademark for its intercom products.

Representatives from both Aiphone and Apple reportedly declined to comment on the matter, but did not deny that the two companies were in talks with each other.

Back in January, Apple faced similar opposition over its use of the iPhone mark from network giant Cisco, which subsequently filed a trademark infringement suit in federal court.

Apple and Cisco eventually reached an out-of-court settlement that allowed both companies to use the iPhone trademark on their products throughout the world.

23 Comments

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

About 17 years ago

Yeah, Airphone really doesn't sounds like iPhone! in English but in Japanese ...? Ah So! Aiiii! You have to give the points for trying lol

umijin 133 comments · 19 Years

About 17 years ago

Dealing with a phonetically identical name is not Apple's biggest hurdle in Japan by a longshot. Nobody cares about the company 'aiphone' in Japan anyway.

Apple's biggest issue in Japan is dealing the monopolistic monoliths that run Japan's 3 major (OK 2 major, and one pretender) mobile service providers. They won't let Apple get anything near the cut they have in the US without jacking up the price to ridiculous levels. A good example of this is how the Japan iTunes store took years to negotiate and get running, and how its prices are nearly double that of other iTunes stores.

The second issue is that Apple will actually have to put a modern radio in its phones. Nobody here in Japan uses archaic technology like GSM anymore - it's all CDMA and faster protocols. OK, you can use the inexpensive PHS phone network, but that service has lots of problems away from the big cities and isn't particularly fast.

My bet is that it will take 3 years for the iPhone to show up here, if at all. And by then, we'll have plenty of iPhone knockoffs that will do the job for most people.