28 September 2009

Nokia In Brazilian Jujitsu Battle Over Ovi Name

You remember the old childhood song by George and Ira Gershwin, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"...

"You like poTAto and I like poTAHto,
You like toMAto and I like toMAHto;
PoTAto, poTAHto, toMAto, toMAHto!
Let's call the whole thing off!"

I thought you would. But evidently, not everyone does. According to Reuters European technology correspondent Tarmo Virki, Brazilian telecom services outfit Ouvi Divulgacao e Marketing em Celulares Ltda, which is Portuguese for "we sell ringtones, games, and whatnot" (Not really, kids. Say in school...) told Reuters that Nokia is misusing the Ovi brand in Brazil, and trying to compete directly its own Ouvi, a brand the Brazilian company has used since 2004. Both brands are pronounced OH-vee, so this could get pretty sticky.

Nokia has been using the Ovi brand since 2007, which is a good three years after the Brazilian company. But here's the real situation. Nokia claims to have filed trademark applications for Ovi before the Brazilian company, but neither party has its trademark duly issued and registered before the Patent and Trademark Office in Brazil. Sounds like someone didn't get all of its ducks in a row somewhere.

Ouvi is under the impression it has higher standing in Brazilian courts because Ouvi, which means "I heard" in Portuguese (and pretty clever, might I add) is part of the company's name, which supercedes a simple trademark registration according to Tore Haugland, Ouvi CEO. Nokia says its Ovi brand is distinguished from Ouvi's (stay with me, confused ones).

It means "door" in Finnish, (Really, kids. Look it up...) and it plans to always use the brand in conjunction with the Nokia brand. But it gets worse. Ouvi thought ahead years ago and thought to register the ovi.com.br domain for those that didn't do well with spelling.

So PoTAto, poTAHto, toMAto, toMAHto... Its more complex than that. Its more like check or cheque. Either way, someone looks to be cashing some, and my guess is its Ouvi. Looks like Nokia has a battle on its hands. We'll have to see how much Ovi really means to Nokia. Maybe Nokia should play Mr. Haugland that old George and Ira Gershwin number, write a nice fat cheque/check (Money is the universal language.) and say, Hey, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"...