Apple in trouble... There already is an iPhone!! Lawsuit pending

[swirlundergrounder]

If you were paying attention to all the hype building up to the Apple iPhone announcement on Tuesday, then you might recall the little snag concerning who actually owns the ÒiPhoneÓ name.
Even though Apple unveiled the iPhone in San Francisco this week, Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc., announced a product called the iPhone on December 18th, 2006. The Linksys iPhone is a Web-enabled telephone handset capable of making calls over the Internet using voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).
So how can two different companies lay claim to the ÒiPhoneÓ name? ThatÕs the problemÉ they canÕt.
Linksys, actually owns the ÒiPhoneÓ trademark because of a Cisco acquisition. A company called Infogear registered the ÒiPhoneÓ name in 1996. Then Cisco then absorbed the ÒiPhoneÓ trademark when it acquired Infogear in the year 2000.

So what happens now? ItÕs all up to the lawyers. Cisco filed a lawsuit against Apple yesterday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Basically Cisco and Apple need to reach a settlement or Apple will have to call their iPhone something different like iChat Mobile.
According to the NY Post, Cisco thought it had reached a deal with Apple. The two companies were reportedly engaged in heated talks over the ÒiPhoneÓ name the past few weeks leading up to the Apple iPhone announcement.
ÒWe sent them final terms on Monday, but we never got approval back,Ó Cisco spokesman John Noh told The Post. ÒWeÕre very open to sharing the trademark. We made that clear. But then they went ahead and used the name without our permission.Ó
Apple has been trying to get the iPhone name away from Cisco since 2001 when they first released the iPod. Will Apple finally be successful? They obviously have something up their sleeve or they wouldnÕt have halted talks with Cisco and just announced the iPhone this week. It will be interesting to see what happens these next few months.

[jamu]

Cisco should be careful, I could see them just getting bought out by apple. And even if they went to court I don't see them winning this one.

[pod]

Umm Cisco purchased by Apple?

Yeah, sure.

If such a term could be applied, Cisco "is" the internet.

[jbit]

^ what POD said ^

Cisco is way out of Apple's league. Thats like saying that Palm might take over Oracle.

Apples and oranges (parden the pun)

[LeVeL]

They fucked up on this one...

[HouseJunkie]

Cisco is not the Internet but it's darn close to being it,
It is quite possible that this web page has processed by at least one Cisco device before it got to you.

As for Apple buying Cisco, just look at the financial stats and decide.

Cisco Market Cap = $175B
Apple Market Cap = $81B

Cisco Revenue = $30B
Apple Revenue = $19B

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=CSCO
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AAPL


I always thought that Apple computers were for the creative thinkers but apparently the decision makers at Apple use PC.


Apple swipes Visual Voicemail from Citrix
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01...sualvoicemail/

[trancepriest]

Cisco never protected their trademark.. there were at least 4 incidents of other companies using the iphone brand. You have to protect your trademark and keep it from becoming a general name. So Apple has a legal defense in that other companies had infringed on the brand and Cisco did nothing.

[pod]

True. This specific case will fall in Apple's favor. You will be all buying iPhones this year. Me, probably in late '07 - early '08 after they work the initial bugs out.

[spinderella7713]

ok so call it icell....damn.

[pod]

It'll be iPhone. Apple will settle if it comes down to it since the name is so prevalent right now.