“Cisco [has] announced that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court in California against Apple, seeking to prevent Apple ‘from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark,'” Ashby Jones blogs for The Wall Street Journal.
Jones reports, “With its lawsuit, Cisco is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Apple from copying Cisco’s iPhone trademark… Apple spokesman Steve Dowling called the Cisco lawsuit ‘silly,’ adding there are several companies using the term iPhone for VOIP products, and Cisco’s trademark is ‘tenuous at best.’ ‘We’re the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cellphone,’ he said. ‘If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we’re very confident we’ll prevail.'”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Cisco sues Apple for ‘iPhone’ trademark infringement – January 10, 2007
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Briefly: Apple changes corporate name; Cisco expects agreement on ‘iPhone’ trademark today – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
It’ll be settled out of court well before June. Non-issue.
Apple probably offered Cisco a big pile of money just to avoid an issue. My guess is Cisco got greedy, wanting an even bigger pile of cash or possibly royalties.
Damn! This has been so much fun that I run out of Popcorn!
Need to go get some more…
i hope apple is not getting too cocky
“We’ve got over 200 patents on this thing and will defend them to the death” – Lord Steve Jobs, MacWorld Expo, January 9, 2007.
“Other people’s rights, intellectual property, and whatever else is really ours if we want it.” – Lord Steve Jobs lawyers, January 10, 2007.
This boundless arrogance and self-importance is going to crash and burn and the cutest gadgets on earth will not protect these guys who all believe they are above the law.
Apple fanboys everywhere – enjoy the bravado while you can, it won’t last long.
iSteve – I agree.
Sue happy, greedy, and discontent. The state of American big business.
I agree with Bruce and iSteve. iPhone will change everything. There will be a lot of companies, possibly Dell and Microsoft, that will try to copy the iPhone. There’re be heck to pay. Heck I tell you!
Why ain’t Cisco suing these guys- http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/whatisiphone.htm ?
To keep a trademark you must actively and vigorously defend it. Cisco has done neither, as evidenced by the numerous existing products with the iPhone moniker, none of which they’ve done anything about.
This lawsuit is a lame attempt to collar the horse after it’s already left the barn. If they wanted control of the iPhone name, they should have been more proactive.
The lame name is not worth fighting over. Just call it ApplePhone (like AppleTV) and be done with it.
Is there a single Csico product besides the iPhone that has the ubiquitous “i”
CISCO does have a registered trademark 75076573, registration #2293011 with a registration date 11/16/99. They have applied for an extension on the trademark. Didn’t anybody at Apple do a USPTO.gov tradmark search? It took me 2 minuted to find a list of 9 trademarks, both dead and alive with the word iphone. The CISCO trademark is one of the four live trademarks. It is also the closest in description to the description of the phone that was unveiled by Steve Jobs. Phone looks great, hope this can be worked out. Check out http://www.uspto.gov
Is everyone called ‘Steve’ inside Apple?
Way to go Wade
I don’t like this dirty pool aproach, but Apple came up with the “i” line of products in the first pace.
Follow the money trail. Other companies use “iPhone,” but Apple’s about to cash in big on a superior cell phone/smartphone- just like they did with the iPod in the mp3 player market. PLUS- ANY connection with Apple, Inc., whether positive or negative, is good publicity for your company.
I agree. Cisco is crying over spilled beer. Don’t they know that sueing someone makes you look like a jerk unless you lost a leg or something?
“Why ain’t Cisco suing these guys- http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/whatisiphone.htm ?”
“To keep a trademark you must actively and vigorously defend it. Cisco has done neither, as evidenced by the numerous existing products with the iPhone moniker, none of which they’ve done anything about.
This lawsuit is a lame attempt to collar the horse after it’s already left the barn. If they wanted control of the iPhone name, they should have been more proactive.”
How do you know for sure you’ve gotten to be a big player? Your bigness is directly proporational to the number of silly lawsuits your legal team has on the table at any given time.
Its clear now that Apple is becoming a very real threat to our MSed world, and I am doing everything I can to help it along. When MS’s market share reaches 50%, the world will breath an enormous sigh of relief. Even Bill Gates will – it’ll take some of the pressure of having to pretend to be a god off of his shoulders. Right now he’s afraid of what that’ll feel like, but he will love it, and the rest of the world will too.
Hey, OneWayStreet . . . you WinTrolls have been predicting the decline and fall of AAPL for the past decade and a half. But not only have THOSE prognostications not come true, the exact OPPOSITE has transpired! Apple is now the undisputed technological leader in the computer/home electronics industry, and that fact is tearing your heart out. (Good. You SO deserve it.)
You might want re-read “Jamie” above, for his/her assertion lies at the core of this brand name dispute. (Thanks to their remarkable inactivity in this area, Cisco will lose this one.)
And, while you’re at it, do a google search on the word “craplet.” It is the verbal omen of doom for your “beloved” VISTA release in a couple of weeks. If ever there was a piece of ordure masquerading as an operating system, it is VISTA. I’d wish you good luck trying to install it on your PC, but even best wishes won’t help YOU out with this supposed “upgrade”! I think “upchuck” is actually a better term.
I posted these links in another thread:
http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/index.htm
http://linkstochina.com/RingChina/iPhone.html
https://iphone.nuvio.com/html/
http://founderna.com/iphone/
http://www.teledex.com/index.cfm?page=LP_3&crid=13
Cisco have no case.
Cisco should have started protecting their iPhone name at the same time when iMac came out if they were really the first one. Othervise they have tough time explaining why just now they should own the “i”. I think Apple and the former iCEO Steve Jobs have upper hand on this one.
Doesn’t this resemble Cisco’s iPhone even more closely than Apple’s?
http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/iPhone_mobile.htm
This level of arrogance is typical of Apple and no surprising.
Personally, I don’t like the name iPhone — it’s ubiquitous. No originality. iPod, iLife — they sound different.
Since the phone is in some ways the extension of an iPod, I think they should call it the “iPod ____” (like nano, shuffle,etc). iPod Phone if fine.
How arrogant of them, they’ve been ‘negotiating’ with Cisco for 5 fsucking years..
At this point they’re willing to release the damn thing and pay the settlement.
How much time did Cisco need to come up with an agreement…
Oh wait.. I know.. every year Apple got richer and richer, and Cisco wanted to keep adding zeros.
TTzz, thanks for those links again. Yes I think you are right. But I also agree that Apple have shot themselves in the foot with this one. This dispute has given some real and valid fuel for the anti-Apple crowd who despise their perceived (real or not) elitist hypocrisy. The iPhone’s (reasonable, IMO) price already has sparked a resurgence of “Apple = overpriced” sentiments (though no one says that about fine automobiles or other luxury items – but I digress.)
Sometimes a bit of down home integrity goes a lot further than an expensive marketing campaign. It’s going to take a lot of dancing, inter-netting silhouettes to squelch the bad taste this lawsuit is leaving in the mouths previously hanging open with rapt appeal for the device itself.