Posted by ketyung
on Jan/11/2007
at 8:59 am
Why didn’t Apple name it “iFon” or “iFone” or “iTel” or “iMobile”? (I always use “fon” instead of “phone” for shorthand when typing SMS). In order to retain its dominance of the “i”-brand, Apple finally named it “iPhone“ and now it’s getting sued by Cisco after its iPhone announced for less than a day!
Cisco Systems has filed a lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of infringing its iPhone trademark. Apple doesn’t own the right to name its product iPhone as Cisco does.
Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 when it acquired Infogear. Infogear had actually registered the iPhone trademark in March 1996, and “iPhone” has been used by Cisco’s Linksys for its VOIP phone since December, 2006.
Apple and Cisco were in the negotiations for both parties to use the “iPhone” name, which was likely to let Apple use it provided that Apple’s iPhone is made compatible with Cisco products.
Cisco made it clear they did not want Apple to announce the phone until negotiations were completed, but Steve Jobs still announced iPhone on Tuesday, which then caused by a lawsuit by Cisco.
Cisco and Apple now into fighting words. The defence from Apple are “There are already several companies using the iPhone name for VoIP (voice over IP) products,”… “We’re the first company ever to use iPhone for a cell phone. If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we’re confident we’ll prevail….”
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
[...] I have stopped for quite some time for not following up with the lawsuit of Apple and Cisco , for fighting over the iPhone name. That’s my fault. Well, part of the reason was I got weary of hearing iPhone name. Still remember? Cisco filed a lawsuit against Apple for insisting using the iPhone name regardless an unsettled negotiation by both parties. The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Cisco instead of Apple, and Cisco had launched thier VOIP Internet iPhone last year in December. [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 5:11 am
[...] course, after more than a year everybody has forgotten what the LinkSys iPhone is about, and in everybody’s mind is just the Apple iPhone. Okay, just take the Apple iPhone [...]
July 28th, 2009 at 6:46 am
[...] Apple products all come with the letter “i” preceding their names, such as iPhone, iMac, iPod, iTunes and more – you name it. But the upcoming tablet of Apple will not be [...]