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Nokia in court in Brazil over the Ovi name

Categories: Nokia
By: , IntoMobile
Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 4:53 AM

Quote of the day:

“What Nokia apparently has not realized is that the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil speak Portuguese and not Finnish.” – Tore Haugland, Chief Executive of Ouvi

There is a company in Brazil called Ouvi that is royally pissed at Nokia since Ovi, which means “door” in Finnish, is pronounced the exact same way as Ouvi. Will wrote about this a few days ago. The company went so far as to even register ovi.com.br in 2004, before Nokia even decided they wanted to become an “internet company”. Ouvi is confident they’re going to win the court case, but then again they’re just some little company that sells ringtones and SMS news alerts. Do they really have enough money to take on a bunch of internationally acclaimed lawyers? Best case scenario: Ouvi wakes up one morning to find a suit case filled with money and they stop the court case later that afternoon. Worst case scenario: Finnish people have to go to Brazil and eat spicy food on the beach as they watch Brazilian booty bounce up and down while they continue a decade long struggle in the local courts. I don’t really see a problem.

[Via: Retuers]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • RandomRant

    You know, no offense, but if they didn’t made such a mess out of the original Portuguese language there wouldn’t be any confusion, Ovi( pronounced: aw-v, brazilian: o-v ) isn’t the same as Ouvi( pronounced: owe-v, brazilian: o-v ).

    Pointless comment though.

  • RandomGuy

    Just to inform, people in Brazil do not eat spicy food (chilli is not really part of the local gastronomy there) and there is more in the country then “bootys bouncing up and down”.

    Sorry but with a few lines you have probably lost a few Brazilian readers in this blog…

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    Not my fault you can’t laugh.

  • MoronouLeme

    I’ve traveled all the over the world eating spicy food, Brazilians don’t eat spicy food but there is plenty of spicy sauces available…MALAGUETA