July 4th, 2009

Apple Inc is holding negotiations with China’s cellular company, Unicom, concerning iPhone sale in China, and Apple said in April that it hoped the Chinese firm to begin sales in the country within the next year.

In fact, there is another Chinese firm, Hanwang Technology Co, which produces electronic devices and Chinese handwriting recognition systems under the brandname “i-phone” for mobile phones in China. But the similarity of the name iPhone would make it illegal for Hanwang to sell Apple’s smartphone under that name in China.

Apple had proposed to register the iPhone trademark in China by the end of 2002, but its application only covered computer hardware and software, and did not include mobile phones.

Then, about two years later, Hanwang - which is also called Hanvon - applied to register the i-phone brandame in the category covering phone equipment as well as mobile handsets. The company started selling a handset called i-phone.

In a bid to sell the iPhone in China, Apple will need to reach an agreement with Hanwang or apply for the trademark office to cancel Hanwang’s trademark. But revoking a brandname usually takes three to four years and is a process which is unlikely to succeed.

Apple has never contacted Hanwang regarding the matter, and has never received any notification from China’s trademark office of any action by the US company.

Smuggled iPhones are already very popular among rich Chinese living in urban areas, and there are more than one million iPhones in China.