The legal battle between Cisco and Apple is heating up quickly since the official unveiling of Apple’s impressive cell phone, dubbed iPhone.
Macalicious reported a few weeks ago that Cisco has owned the trademark name, ‘iPhone,’ since 1996 and now is quite miffed that Apple has committed a trademark infringement.
“This is not a suit against Apple’s innovation, their modern design, or their cool phone. It is not a suit about money or royalties. We hope we can reach an agreement, but when your neighbor steals your property, you have no resource other than to call the cops and file a complaint,” said Cisco Senior Vice President Mark Chandler.
The public has been speculating for some time that Apple would release a mobile phone device with a similar ‘i’ usage like their famous iPods and iMac trademark names. Apple has filed their own trademark application for the name iPhone and most people didn’t even know that Apple didn’t already own the trademark name.
Brian Banner, a copyright and trademark attorney, says its possible that a judge will decided that both parties can use the name as long as it is advertised with their appropriate company name, such as Apple iPhone and Cisco iPhone. Banner also said, “They [Apple] must have figured the reward was greater than the risk. They probably figured that the registration Cisco has is not a serious impediment.”
Cisco’s current iPhone trademark registration is very brief in the sense that it does not even refer to it being a cell phone. It states, “Computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks.” Katie Cotton, an official Apple spokeswoman, said, “We are the first company to use the iPhone name for a cell phone and we’re confident we will prevail.”
It is doubtful that this lawsuit will last very long and we are more likely to see Apple pay Cisco for the trademark name to resolve the whole issue.
