Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple, iPhone
Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark
The sound of Steve Jobs saying 'iPhone' was music to many an Apple fan's ears yesterday, but it seems Steve may have spoken too soon. The Associated Press is reporting that Cisco is planning on suing Apple over the use of the word 'iPhone,' which Cisco has a trademark on. It was reported that Apple and Cisco were on the edge of making a deal, but no legal documents were signed before Steve hit the stage yesterday.Does this mean that the iPhone is dead and long live the iPod Mobile? Only time will tell, but I am sure Cisco can be wooed with a bucket of money.
Update: Here is the text of Cisco's press release on the suit. Tip o' the hat to The Apple Blog.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greg said 8:51PM on 1-10-2007
Rats.
Oh well. What's in a name?
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derek said 7:28PM on 1-10-2007
of course not. Apple will just pay them off.
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Eli Hodapp said 6:57PM on 1-10-2007
Ehh, I don't think they would call it the iPod Mobile. They need a name that completely separates itself from the iPod device line. iComm, or something like that. Who knows.
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zerock said 7:42PM on 1-10-2007
i guess it would be , iMobile or Apple Mobile.
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TK said 7:10PM on 1-10-2007
Next on Jobs' agenda: buy Cisco
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Mr Lizard said 7:15PM on 1-10-2007
It's very arrogant for Apple to just nick the name like that without finalising the paperwork first.
I'm not suprised Cisco are suing.
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Jon H. said 7:50PM on 1-10-2007
It seems to me that Cisco pretty much has their hands tied, for better or worse. The iPhone was the iPhone before it even existed!
Cisco isn't trademark-squatting since it had the rights since before even the iPod, but there's not much they can do now it seems. Hopefully they can at least sell the rights to Apple and rightfully make a few bucks off of it.
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elfrune said 8:03PM on 1-10-2007
Heck who cares if Cisco sue now that the name is out there everyone will still call the device an iPhone. Maybe they should change it to HiPhone :-)
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Allen said 7:29PM on 1-10-2007
Just call it the Apple phone. iTV is already known as the Apple tv.
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Dan said 7:25PM on 1-10-2007
What about "Apple Phone"?
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Jon said 7:27PM on 1-10-2007
So, what are the chances of Apple winning?
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Adam said 7:58PM on 1-10-2007
While they may end up renaming it - Apple may actually have some type of case against Cisco here. They played to the iProduct name of which all of Apple's products are named after - and I'd bet a great lawyer could sue them back for misrepresenting an Apple product.
Ok I don't bet that, but you see where I'm going here.
My moneys on iComm.
Almost sounds dirty.
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robert said 7:53PM on 1-10-2007
ahhh.... brinksmanship ... negotiation on a razors edge.
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Guy said 8:33PM on 1-10-2007
@#2. I hope that is a joke. Cicsco is a quite larger company than Apple. Ciscos sales last year were 30 Billion compared to Apple 19, and profit was 5.9 Bil to 2 Bil. Cisco assets are 45 Bil to 17 Bil. Those are considerable differences. If Apple wants to play hardball, Cisco can definately afford to.
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Matthew said 8:20PM on 1-10-2007
Not to beat a dead horse, but call it the Newton.
Apple still owns the rights to Newton tm, the URL, etc. Besides, those of us who used the Newton see the several similarities: the bezel, the icons, etc.
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Chris Bell said 10:43PM on 1-10-2007
The problem for Cisco is that there was already brand recognition for "iPhone" as an Apple product before Apple even released it. A web search will prove that. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I bet Steve is willing to pay a lot of money for the rights to that name. Although, I do wonder why they changed the iTV to Apple TV.
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Jonathan Miller said 8:50PM on 1-10-2007
Its still an iPod so it should be called as such. So iPod + something...
or maybe we could call it "Spawn of Newton"
no?
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robert said 8:43PM on 1-10-2007
Breaking news: Apple Inc. has announced a nationwide contest to rename its new iPhone. The winner will be picked randomly from a rotating barrel of postcard entries by Steve himself at the next media event. The winner to receive a new Beatles commemorative iPod.
In a related story, Cisco has renamed itself 'iCisco'.
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John Earnhardt said 9:03PM on 1-10-2007
For more flavor on this suit and why, please view our SVP and General Counsel Mark Chandler’s blog entry on this issue at: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/01/update_on_ciscos_iphone_tradem.html
He states, in part, “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. This is a suit about trademark infringement.”
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Michael said 8:48PM on 1-10-2007
I think phone is the most likely choice at this point if they can't use iPhone.
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