Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark
Cisco on Wednesday evening said it is suing Apple for trademark infringement in federal court, claiming that negotiations had broken down between the two companies over use of the iPhone name.
While the networking firm had said only yesterday that it expected an agreement that would allow both firms use the iPhone name for their respective handheld communicators, the company filed a lawsuit after the newly rechristened Apple, Inc. apparently failed to sign the plan before an imposed Tuesday night deadline.
"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," claimed Cisco senior VP and general counsel Mark Chandler in a statement accompanying the suit.
The networking giant, which released its Linksys iPhone scarcely three weeks before the Macworld San Francisco keynote on January 9th, had obtained the trademark in 2000 but did not believe it had a reason to use the iPhone title until it was ready to ship a VoIP handset that it thought merited the name.
During his keynote presentation at Macworld San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that his company's cellular network-based iPhone had been in development for roughly two and a half years, placing its inception approximately four years after Cisco originally registered the trademark.
Apple has so far remained silent regarding the progress of negotiations and the resulting lawsuit.
While the networking firm had said only yesterday that it expected an agreement that would allow both firms use the iPhone name for their respective handheld communicators, the company filed a lawsuit after the newly rechristened Apple, Inc. apparently failed to sign the plan before an imposed Tuesday night deadline.
"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," claimed Cisco senior VP and general counsel Mark Chandler in a statement accompanying the suit.
The networking giant, which released its Linksys iPhone scarcely three weeks before the Macworld San Francisco keynote on January 9th, had obtained the trademark in 2000 but did not believe it had a reason to use the iPhone title until it was ready to ship a VoIP handset that it thought merited the name.
During his keynote presentation at Macworld San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that his company's cellular network-based iPhone had been in development for roughly two and a half years, placing its inception approximately four years after Cisco originally registered the trademark.
Apple has so far remained silent regarding the progress of negotiations and the resulting lawsuit.
Comments
- Xidius
Teh big suck.
Why dont apple research trade marked name before naming their products, sometimes steve and his band can be so stupid!
Why dont apple research trade marked name before naming their products, sometimes steve and his band can be so stupid!
Apple was aware of the previous trademark, CDMM. I think they insisted on using it because everyone referred to the mystery phone as "iPhone" and Steve probably thought we should go ahead anyway, and let the chips fall where they may. It's far more valuable to Apple as a brand... but damn. Oh, well. It's still not too late to call it MoPho™.
Apple was aware of the previous trademark, CDMM. I think they insisted on using it because everyone referred to the mystery phone as "iPhone" and Steve probably thought we should go ahead anyway, and let the chips fall where they may. It's far more valuable to Apple as a brand... but damn. Oh, well. It's still not too late to call it MoPho?.
I think this will be sorted out..... some extra $$$$ will have to change hands.
Tuesday night? Jobs was probably getting some (well-deserved) sleep, so CHILL OUT, CISCO!!!!!!!
(Could impact the stock price tomorrow, tho).
Sounds like someone trying to piggy back on someones coattails
Are you high?
Cisco needs to face the fact that they got "Kleenexed" by the press and stock analysts before they ever shipped. They need to get a fair amount from Apple for the actual trademark, but if they don't sell it, they are going to fail with their own phone because everyone is going to look for the Apple phone even though it has a different name. Apple can still call the new phone whatever they want and not loose a single sale, but the iPhone trademark is worthless to Cisco as a long term brand - it is irrevocably tied to Apple by the media attention before it was even announced officially.
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Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris called Cisco's lawsuit ''silly'' and said there are already several other companies using the name iPhone for VoIP products.
''We believe that Cisco's U.S. trademark registration is tenuous at best,'' she said. ''Apple's the first company to use the iPhone name for a cell phone. And if Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're very confident we will prevail.''
Cisco executives argue that, despite the current dissimilarities between the Cisco and Apple iPhone, both phones could take on new features or work on different networks than they do today.
Erik Suppiger, networking specialist at Pacific Growth Equities, said that argument is sound in an era of ''convergence,'' when the Internet is increasingly used as a telephone network.
''I'd envision that Cisco would be inclined to add cellular functionality to its iPhone. I would not be surprised to see them add additional memory for supporting whatever media functions you might want, either -- they'd be logical extensions,'' Suppiger said. ''The phones may not overlap right now, but they would over the foreseeable future.''
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They should just forget Cisco and call it the Macberry...that won't piss any one off
I like it.
I could see grounds, in my lack of knowledge, for dismissing the suit outright, since Apple does not sell an iPhone. Yet. Seems that a suit would be totally baseless untill Apple ACTUALLY violates the trademark. Six months is a long way off, and it seems to me to be unreasonable to sue someone for something they MIGHT do in the future.
I suspect this is all politicing. Same with the intel chip thing. Apple makes an announcement in order to pressure the other party into accepting Apple's offer (remember the airline thing?), or risk public embarassment when they deny it. As to the iPhone intel chip, I suspect that Apple made a low offer, which intel said, "Let me get back to you on that", and Apple attempted to use the public announcement to pressure intel into accepting the offer.
500lb gorilla tactics (they aint 1000 lb yet!)
:-D
Serial Number\tReg. Number\tWord Mark\tCheck Status\tLive/Dead
78581563\t\tIPHONE\tTARR\tLIVE
78590673\t\tXTREME IPHONE\tTARR\tLIVE
78318603\t\tIPHONES.WS, IPHONES, IPHONESPCS.COM, IPHONESPCS,TARR DEAD
77007808\t\tIPHONE\tTARR\tLIVE
75920329\t\tIPHONES\tTARR\tDEAD
75076573\t2293011\tIPHONE\tTARR\tLIVE
75292849\t\tCIDCO IPHONE\tTARR\tDEAD
75292483\t\tCIDCO IPHONE & DESIGN\tTARR\tDEAD
74517081\t\tIPHONE\tTARR\tDEAD