Apple gets handbagged in China as its loses legal fight over iPhone trademark

An iPhone can now be a handbag… at least, it can in China. It comes after Apple lost a legal fight with a Chinese company which produces leather goods such as wallets and bags under the brand name iphone. The tech giant failed to prove it was well enough known in the country before Xintong Tiandi applied for a trademark in 2007. It caps a bad few days for Apple which conceded sales of iPhones had fallen for the first time.

The ‘iphone’ brand can blossom widely outside Apple. We will take the ‘iphone’ marque to its pinnacle, and together bring more benefit to the community of ‘iphone’ consumers!

Xintong Tiandi

Apple applied to trademark iPhone for computer- and software-related goods in 2002, according to an official legal journal which published the court’s findings. Xintong Tiandi applied to use the name on wallets and leather goods, such as mobile phone cases, two years before Apple’s smartphones went on sale in China in 2009, it said. As a result, the court in Beijing ruled that Apple had failed to prove iPhone was a “famous brand” in China at the time.

apple china