Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
Apple and Cisco put iPhone lawsuit on hold to talk things over
It's good to see two major putting down legal weapons of trademark war and setting an example for the children. Forbes is reporting that Cisco has agreed to give Apple some extra time to respond to their iPhone trademark lawsuit (perhaps they know they might not have a leg to stand on?) so the two companies can sit down and maybe work things out peacefully.The actual discussions are forthcoming, but since Cisco is apparently still seeking interoperability, I'm betting these 'discussions' aren't going to last much longer than a 'chat.' Apple doesn't share a bed with another 3rd party very often, and the iPhone means they're joined at more than just the hip with Cingular already.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sub Genius said 5:43PM on 2-01-2007
Don't forget Cisco isn't a rinkydink mom and pop outfit.
Cisco also owns Linksys wich is a very popular consumer electornis brand with generally poor Mac support.
If Apple has any interest in getting it's products into the hands of enterprise customers, they should be looking to work with Cisco.
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tommy said 8:42PM on 2-01-2007
actually i think these will be more than a chat and ending with apple paying a whole lot of money for the right to use cisco's trademark. Cisco does have a leg to stand on, they have the original trademark in their name, and the only thing that apple has is a defense in a lawsuit that no one knows how the judge will rule. my guess is that either apple buys the tradmark or pay cisco a bunch of cash to use it each year, and even less likely would be that they would pay royalties for each IPHONE it sells.
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Dave Chartier said 8:59PM on 2-01-2007
#2: Tommy - while you're correct in that Cisco holds the original trademark registration, there's a huge loophole to their claim. As it turns out, to maintain a trademark, you have to actually use it; they haven't used it for years (in fact, they *never* used it until December 06), and many don't believe their last-minute iPhone product is going to be enough of a stake in the ground.
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cs0875 said 10:37AM on 2-02-2007
Whether Cisco has a leg to stand on or not is not really important to them. They have something more important, Apples scheduled release of the iPhone in June. There is one word Steve Jobs and Apple don't want to hear from the courts, injunction. Even if Cisco knows they are going to lose, they can drag this out until atlease June, probably longer maybe even past the holiday season. As long as this is still being fought Cisco can get an injunction against Apple not allowing them to release an iPhone. Apple, right or wrong doesn't want that. They will lose more money if their product isn't released until 2008 than they would paying Cisco.
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