Apple close to settlement over iPhone trademark in Brazil

Apple and IGB Eletrônica are allegedly close to a settlement in the Brazilian iPhone trademark dispute, according to reports from a local newspaper. Forbes reports that Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest daily newspaper, claims that both parties have agreed to end their lawsuit and come to some sort of agreement over the trademark. Last month, Brazil’s Institute of Industrial Property determined that Apple did not own exclusive rights to the iPhone trademark. Gradiente, the company that would eventually become IGB Eletrônica, filed suit against Apple claiming that it registered the trademark back in 2000, a good seven years before the iPhone’s debut.

The terms of the pending agreement are not yet known, though Apple has settled for millions of dollars in other, similar trademark cases in the past. Either way, it doesn’t look like the iPhone will known by any other name in Brazil, even there are other devices on shelves with a similar moniker.