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Intellectual property


Apple has filed more than 200 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.[113][114]

LG Electronics claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”[115]

On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE"[116] and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone".[117] "I Phone" was registered in March 1998,[116] and "IPhone" was registered in 1999.[117] Since then, the I PHONE mark had been abandoned.[116] Infogear's trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing),[116] and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing).[118] Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998.[119] In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name.[120] In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark.[121] On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.[122]

In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago.[123] As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple's New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple.[124] The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.[121]

Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before.[125] On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name.[126] More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.[127]

On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they hold settlement talks,[128] and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007 that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name[129] in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between their security, consumer, and business communications products.[130]

The iPhone has also inspired several leading high-tech clones, driving both Apple's popularity and consumer willingness to upgrade iPhones quickly.[22]


Restrictions

SIM Lock removal




Unlocked iPhone firmware version 2.0 using GrameenPhone Network in Bangladesh.

While initially iPhones were only sold on the AT&T network with a SIM lock in place, various hackers have found methods to "unlock" the phone; more recently some carriers have started to sell unlocked iPhones.[131] Although AT&T is the only authorized iPhone carrier in the United States, the older, "hackable" iPhones can thus be used with an unauthorized carrier or a Wi-Fi connection after unlocking.[23] More than a quarter of iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and unlocked.[132] AT&T has stated that the "iPhone cannot be unlocked, even if you are out of contract".[133] The iPhone 3G has resisted being reliably unlockable for some months.[23]

On November 21, 2007, T-Mobile in Germany announced it would sell the phone unlocked and without a T-Mobile contract, caused by a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile put in place by their competitor, Vodafone.[134] On December 4, 2007, a German court decided to grant T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone with SIM lock, overturning the temporary injunction.[135] In addition, T-Mobile will voluntarily offer to unlock customers' iPhone after the termination of the contract.[136]

On carriers where removal of the iPhone's SIM lock is allowed, the carrier can submit a request to Apple which will then remove the carrier locking on the next restore of the iPhone through iTunes. Note that in certain countries, where unlocked phones are required to be available by law, the iPhone is sold without a contract and without a SIM lock; on average, such units carry prices of US$700+ for the 8 GB model. Examples include Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, and Russia.[137] In Australia, all three carriers (Optus, Telstra, and Vodafone) will also provide an unlock after requesting it from the carrier.[137]

Activation


The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.[138]

Unlike the original, the 3G iPhone must be activated in the store in most countries.[139] This need for in-store activation, as well as the huge number of first-generation iPhone and iPod Touch users upgrading to iPhone OS 2.0, caused a worldwide overload of Apple's servers on July 11, 2008, the day on which both the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0 updates were released. After the update, devices were required to connect to Apple's servers to authenticate the update, causing many devices to be temporarily unusable.[140]



Users on the O2 network in the United Kingdom, however, can buy the phone online and activate it via iTunes as with the previous model.[141] iPhones purchased in Australia as a pre-paid kit likewise do not require in-store activation, but require activation online at the Optus website and iTunes.[142] Buyers can also activate iPhones via iTunes on Spain's Movistar network. Shops usually offer activation for the buyer's convenience.

Third party applications


The iPhone's operating system is designed to only run software that has an Apple-approved cryptographic signature. This restriction can be overcome by "jailbreaking" the phone,[143] which involves replacing the iPhone's firmware with a slightly modified version that does not enforce the signature check. Doing so may be a circumvention of Apple's technical protection measures. [144] Apple, in a statement to the United States Copyright Office in response to EFF lobbying for a DMCA exception for this kind of hacking, claimed that jailbreaking the iPhone would be copyright infringement due to the modification of system software needed to jailbreak the iPhone.[145]


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