Finnish mobile handset giant Nokia has found itself in the midst of a legal dispute in Brazil over its Ovi brand. Brazilian firm Ouvi Divulgacao e Marketing em Celulares Ltda claims that Nokia is abusing the Ovi brand in the country to compete directly with Ouvi. Nokia believes the brand, introduced in 2007, is different enough from Ouvi to co-exist, and points out that it is a Finnish word with a different meaning (windows, doors).
“What Nokia apparently has not realized is that the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil speak Portuguese and not Finnish,” said Tore Haugland, chief executive of Ouvi told Reuters. “We are sure that the Brazilian court will rule in our favor and we look forward to Nokia removing the Ovi brand from all the phones that have been shipped in Brazil and stopping using and mentioning this brand in Brazil.”
Ouvi also registered the ovi.com.br domain name in 2004 because the pronunciation of Ovi and Ouvi in Brazilian Portuguese is the same. “We have our brand name also as part of the company name, which in Brazilian law counts higher than a registered trademark,” Ouvi’s Haugland said. A court decision on the case is expected any day.
Result for: midst
According to Slyck, the newsgroup server Astraweb has increased its retention to 270 days, hopping over Giganews on its way to being the newsgroup provider with the longest retention.
“Astraweb is pleased to announce that we have just completed an infrastructure upgrade to increase our retention and improve our network. Our retention is currently growing towards 270 days from 160 days.”
When the provider will actually hit 270 is still in question though, and whether Giganews will respond is kind is a more important question. On Christmas, Giganews confided they were in the midst of a massive upgrade themselves and that new retention times would be “well beyond 240 days.”
Giganews currently costs $30 USD a month while Astraweb only cost $15.
