Roger Fingas
The design of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is too similar to the 100C phone by Shenzhen Baili, and violates that company's patents, the Beijing Intellectual Property Office ruled on Friday.
The decision only affects Beijing for the moment, and Apple may still be able to sell iPhone 6 models while it files an appeal, Bloomberg reported. The company is in fact said to have several means of fighting any possible sales ban, such as the Beijing Higher People's Court or the Supreme People's Court.
Apple didn't comment on the matter, but needs to appeal not just because of the prospect of losing sales in a major city, but the precedent such a ruling could have elsewhere in China. The company has already filed a lawsuit to try and quash the ruling, according to CRI.
The country has sometimes proven a tough battleground for Apple in terms of patents and trademarks. Just this year the company lost exclusive rights to the "iPhone" name, and in 2012 it had to pay out $60 million to settle a dispute over the "iPad" trademark. The company does sometimes win battles in the region, however.
The point of the Baili case could become moot by the end of 2016. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have already largely been sidelined by Apple in favor of the iPhone 6s and the iPhone SE, and this fall the company is expected to launch next-generation devices that could bump the iPhone 6 series out of its product lineup.
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Amber Neely
53 Comments
Move all manufacturing out of China and into India.
Let's start flexing our muscles and stop getting pushed around for some BS reasons.
Chinese IP Properties = Oxymoron
What kind of idiots would mistake theses two phones? And what are the differences between 6 and 6s in terms of design? That Beijing office just throw its all credibility down to the drain together with the central government's
That white 100+ looks exactly like my iPhone 3G did in 2009.
What a ridiculous ruling.