Apple has lost control of the iPhone trademark in China, meaning that another company can continue selling products with the smartphone''s name on them.
A Beijing court said Apple wasn't able to prove that iPhone was a “famous brand” in China, before a local company applied for a trademark in 2007, the year the phone was released. That means that the ownership of the name is still with the local Xintong Tiandi Technology company.
The decision came in late April and means that the Chinese company can keep using the name on mobile phone cases, wallets, handbags and other leather goods.
The decision is another knock to Apple's business in China - the company''s second biggest market - and where it hopes to gain much of its future growth from. The company has had other problems in the Chinese market, with a drop in the growth of iPhone sales and disruption to some of its services.
Apple first applied to trademark iPhone for computers and software in 2002. Xintong Tiandi applied to use the name a month before Apple's phones went on sale in China in 2009 - but two years after the iPhone was widely available across the world. Apple's lawsuit was filed in 2012. – The Independent