Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark

http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/12615/Infogear_iPhone.html

Note the date.

Just call it the MacPhone.

Done.

How about switching to another letter? Apple might patent, trademark, and register the letter 'D' for instance. That way anyone who uses the letter 'D' would have to pay a 1-cent royalty fee to Apple.

So far, for this post, I might owe Apple one cent. (The ones in quotes are reviews and as such are not applicable.)

What's next?

'dPhone'
'dMac'
'dPod'
'dCar'
'dPlane'

It boggles the min- . . . er . . . brain.

--Knotty

apple had to have known about cisco's iphone. so why did it use that name yesterday knwoing that a lawsuit was sure to come?

here's my take, and i think it's a brilliant move on apple's end.

the product hasn't been released yet, and still needs a few tweaks for it to be ready for the june release. however, the first bang is always the biggest bang, and apple needed to make a loud noise about this phone. by using the the name iphone in the announcements yesterday, apple more than assured themselves the name "iphone" to be connected by the public to their phone, not cisco's phone. your brand is what people perceive it to be, not necessarily what it is in reality. no one knows about cisco's phone. however, after yesterday, even if apple agrees to change the name of the phone to "apple phone" in june, people would no doubt still call it 'iphone', even though its real name is "apple phone". meanwhile, cisco's phone will be named "iphone", but no one will know about it. and when they do, they will think of it as "the other iphone", or "cisco's voip phone".

in essence, even though apple doesn't technically own the name 'iphone', it actually does because that's what the public will be calling it.

ask yourself this... when you see the mobile phone that apple debut yesterday, what do you call it? when you see the words "iphone", what comes to your mind? see what i mean? it doesn't really matter anymore who technically owns that name. it will always be in reference to the apple iphone.

To the guy who joked about Apple buying Cisco... I realize you're joking, but in fact Cisco is a much larger company than Apple, Apple couldn't buy them. They make the huge powerful routers (and own Linksys, which makes the little routers popular among consumers) and whatnot that comprise a large portion of the internet. Basically, they're kind of a big deal.

Just call it the Apple (symbol) Phone and be done with it. Fits better with the recent corporate name-change anyways.

iPod vox

Let's hear from the trademark experts. Cisco/Infogear description of goods cannot change and was:"G & S: computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks." Ocean telecom filed in Sept 2006 SN 77007808 with this: "IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data; MP3 and other digital format audio players; handheld computers, personal digital assistants, electronic organizers, electronic notepads; magnetic data carriers; telephones, mobile phones, computer gaming machines, videophones, cameras; prerecorded computer programs for personal information management, database management software, electronic mail and messaging software, paging software, database synchronization software, computer programs for accessing, browsing and searching online databases, computer software and firmware, namely operating system programs, data synchronization programs, and application development tool programs for personal and handheld computers; electronic handheld units for the wireless receipt and/or transmission of data that enable the user to keep track of or manage personal information; software for the redirection of messages, Internet e-mail, and/or other data to one or more electronic handheld devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server; and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device; computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks
IC 028. US 022 023 038 050. G & S: hand-held unit for playing electronic games.

Let's hear from the trademark experts.

"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.”

It's possible that the agreement between Apple and Cisco involved Cisco keeping the trademark for the name "iPhone", but it lwtting Apple use the name for this particular phone. If this was in the agreement and Cisco doesn't sue apple for using the name without permission before they came to an agreement, it is possible for them to lose the trademark completely, which is probably why they decided to sue.

I think Cisco is being petty. They know damn well the iPhone name should belong to Apple. They're just being name squatters.