Apple has just lost its exclusive right to use the iPhone trademark in China after a ruling against the company was recently issued by the Beijing Municipal High People's Court.
The tech giant, however, keeps the right to the trademark for electronic goods, while a local company which uses the name for its leather goods is still allowed to do so.
This ruling was reported by the Legal Daily, which is widely recognized as the China's official mouthpiece for its Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, according to BBC.
The dispute over the iPhone trademark has been going on for many years in this country.
Apple Inc originally applied for the trademark in 2002, specifically for electronics goods category only, approximately five years prior to the debut of the iPhone. The request was not granted at that time.
Five years later, in 2007, a Chinese company, Xinton Tiandi Technology applied for the trademark for leather goods and was granted its request in 2010. The Cupertino, CA-based company appealed twice in 2012 with China's trademark authority and a lower Beijing court. But both appeals were denied since it cannot show it is a well-known brand in China.
Apple then appealed to the Beijing Municipal High People's Court. But this court rejected the company's appeal on March 31.
"Apple could appeal this case to the Supreme People's Court in Beijing and they probably will," said Ted Chwu, a partner and lawyer who specializes in intellectual property at the Bird & Bird, a law firm in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg.
"If you've got the budget to make a huge commercial splash then you should expect that splash to attract attention in the wrong way," he added.
This is not the first time Apple Inc suffered this fate. In Mexico, it lost its right for local traders to use the iPhone brand in 2014 because a local firm had already trademarked iFone in 2003.
