Cisco sues Apple over iPhone name

[Scrumhalf]

Reuters
Cisco sues Apple over iPhone name
Wednesday January 10, 8:29 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - News) on Wednesday sued Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - News) over its use of the iPhone trademark, a day after Apple shook up the cell phone market by unveiling its sleek mobile phone using the name claimed by Cisco.

...................

"We think this is silly," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling of the tiff over trademarks. "There are already several companies using the name iPhone for voice over IP (Internet Protocol) products."

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070110/cisco_iphone.html?.v=9

[Fire14]

I figured I would post another article on this (hope you don't mind Scrumhalf)
It seems Apple jumped the gun on the name.


Cisco sues Apple over the iPhone name

Worthwhile? It looks like Steve Jobs jumped the gun in sticking with the iPhone name, which is owned by Cisco. The two companies were in negotiation as Jobs took the stage on Tuesday to introduce his new mobile device, but didn't find a common ground…at least not soon enough. Cisco's final efforts to make a deal were apparently rebuffed or ignored by Jobs. The two companies had an idea to share the brand, to make clear their differentiation (which would be hard to do), to have their products interoperate, and to announce the deal by Macworld.


David Berlind covers much of the iPhone trademark history here. Following is Cisco's release:

Cisco today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple, Inc., seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. Infogear’s original filing for the trademark dates to March 20, 1996. Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year. On Dec. 18, Linksys expanded the iPhone® family with additional products.

“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco.

“There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission. “Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand,” Chandler concluded.

With its lawsuit, Cisco is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Apple from copying Cisco’s iPhone trademark. For more information on the Cisco iPhone product line, please visit www.linksys.com/iphone.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4266&tag=nl.e589


Here is a link to the actual court complaint: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4267

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I figured I would post another article on this (hope you don't mind Scrumhalf)
It seems Apple jumped the gun on the name.

I don't think Apple jumped the gun. They were in negotiations with Cisco, and they knew they didn't have a licensing agreement. Unfortunately for them, thy hype and rumors for the phone leading into Macworld, almost forced their hand to make the announcement. That, plus everyone will get the details when they file for FCC approval.

It's a risk reward thing - the reward to making the announcement now is greater than the risk of the lawsuit.

[Matt]

From the complaint - Apple talked to Cisco first in 2001:

17. Fully aware that Cisco owned the rights to the iPhone mark, Apple first
approached Cisco in 2001 about the possibility of acquiring or licensing the rights to iPhone. Apple has continued making such requests to Cisco through the present, including several timesin 2006. Each time, Apple was told that Cisco was not interested in ceding the mark to Apple.

[JFB]

I think Apple should have come up with a more unique name. iPod is unique and it works, iPhone says nothing. It is just a regular old word with an i in from of it... yawn.

[jones]

Lwasuit or Not, Cing will sell it anyway
http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-s...p?locale=en_US

[hf1khal]

Well the product has not infringed on the patent yet. It has not been sold in the market so if Aple wants they can easily circumvent this by finding a more suitable name. I think Cisco is also playing a game to get more than they were offered as they propably saw nothing but money in their own eyes. I think they can come up with another catchy name that will reflect more on the product's features.

[fb]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1168..._whats_news_us

From the article:

In an interview, Cisco Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mark Chandler said Apple had approached Cisco repeatedly about using the iPhone name, going back as far as 2001. Mr. Chandler said the companies held "intensive discussions" over the matter starting several weeks ago. He said the two sides seemed to be headed toward an agreement that would allow for "differentiation" between Cisco's iPhone product and Apple's, as well as some way to make it possible for the two products to work together.

Such a deal was never finalized though, he said. "All we're asking them to do is to not use our brand without our permission."


The iPhone
In its complaint, Cisco asserts Apple started a "surreptitious effort" last year to get rights to use the iPhone name after Cisco refused to let Apple use it. .....

Cisco, after the iPhone debut, said in a statement that they had expected Apple to sign an agreement related to their use of the iPhone trademark that Cisco had sent to them Monday night.

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: LG-CU500 Obigo/WAP2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

It just adds to the hype, i think.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by Matt

From the complaint - Apple talked to Cisco first in 2001:

I didn't realize that Cisco had the name patent for that long or that Apple was trying to get it for the last 4+ years. Guess they expected to do something like this for a while.

Originally Posted by JFB

I think Apple should have come up with a more unique name. iPod is unique and it works, iPhone says nothing. It is just a regular old word with an i in from of it... yawn.

I do agree the name is boring, but I guess Apple just feels it's right and names the product better, but as you said "iPod" is unique & has now become a main stream name. I wonder what other names they tried iMobile?

Originally Posted by walkguru

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: LG-CU500 Obigo/WAP2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

It just adds to the hype, i think.

Yes it does, and this could be another marketing stratagy by Apple to make it more popular & more free advertising in the press. (of course I can't see it being free, since the lawyers will make a good buck on this).

[JFB]

Maybe if Apple is successful in wrestling the iPhone trademark away from Cisco, they'll come out with a robot and name it iRobot.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by JFB

Maybe if Apple is successful in wrestling the iPhone trademark away from Cisco, they'll come out with a robot and name it iRobot.

Yes, and then they could make lawyer robots. I can see it now - the iSue 2010 vs. the iSueYou II.


SW

[bobolito]

Cisco sues Apple? LOL! I thought they had come to an agreement.

The iPod name did confuse some people when it came out. Anyone remember the HP iPaq?

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by JFB

Maybe if Apple is successful in wrestling the iPhone trademark away from Cisco, they'll come out with a robot and name it iRobot.

They can't do that, iRobot is the company that makes Roombas and Scoobas. They also make bomb robots and stuff.

iRobot

[walkguru]

so i guess apple is claiming anything with i in frount of it is thiers.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan

They can't do that, iRobot is the company that makes Roombas and Scoobas. They also make bomb robots and stuff.

iRobot

Moto - I'm sure JFB knows that, that's why he added the And then there's the SNL parody commercial about the Womb-ba It's probably on youTube.


SW

[JFB]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan

They can't do that, iRobot is the company that makes Roombas and Scoobas. They also make bomb robots and stuff.

iRobot

Yeah, that was my point.

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by SteveW

Moto - I'm sure JFB knows that, that's why he added the And then there's the SNL parody commercial about the Womb-ba It's probably on youTube.

Originally Posted by JFB

Yeah, that was my point.

Ahhh... my bad. Quick pops into WA while at work lead to not picking up on sarcasm, I guess. Sorry about that.


I just don't know why Apple is on this i-whatever kick. iPod was kind of a cool name but anymore, putting "i" in front of a word to make it "cool," is like putting "e" in front of something in the 1990's to make it all "internetty," or whatever.

Apple should have come up with some non-sensical name for it, like Zune... or, perhaps they did come up with a name for it but they and Cisco are just doing this for free press. Think about it, it raises the profile of Cisco's iPhone, so it's good for them, then Apple can change the name of their iPhone to whatever they want and it'll still sell like hotcakes.

Brilliant!