A Brazilian electronics company is claiming it owns the trademark for the name ‘iPhone’, having registered it before Apple.

IGB Eletrônica (also known as Gradiente) filed for the trademark “G Gradiente iphone” in 2000, however it took eight years for the registration to be approved. By this stage Apple had already released the Apple iPhone.

In 2012, Gradiente released an Android smartphone called “Gradiente iphone”, after which Apple applied to have Brazil’s trademark regulator invalidate Gradiente’s trademark registration, arguing the company was piggybacking off the success of Apple’s device.

Gradiente lost the trademark, and took the case to the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2020.

No date for the trial has been set, but Brazil’s Prosecutor General has given his assent to Apple, who he says owns the iPhone trademark.

Aras claims that, due to the “supervening context” — in other words, Apple’s global market dominance — the rights cannot be based on who registered the trademark first.