Cisco files infringement suit against Apple over iPhone – MarketWatch — Here’s a case where Apple gets a taste of its own medicine.
… seeking to prevent Apple from using the iPhone trademark. Cisco said it obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after acquiring Infogear. Cisco said Infogear’s original filing for the trademark was on March 20, 1996. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission,” said Mark Chandler, Cisco’s senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement.
I’m guessing CISCO jumped on the trademark just to sue Apple?
Difference between Apple’s iphone and Cisco’s iphone. Apple’s will be highly successful and they will sell millions. Cisco’s iphone will probably be off the market by this time next year.
Hmmm, so it looks like the iPhone vaporware announcement was all part of a pump and dump scheme on apple stock after all…
I was waiting for this to happen or at least someone to explain how they could call it iPhone.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by folks jumping to conclusions without examining at least the facts already public.
Apple and Cisco have been negotiating this trademark for ~2 years. Even yesterday, folks from Cisco said the deal was ready to be signed. So much for trolls.
The most knowledgeable analysts figure Apple built the cost of an eventual settlement with Cisco into the price of the phone.
Cisco announced at the beginning of a press meeting yesterday that it was in fact in the middle of negotiating the agreement and anticipated that since Jobs announced the name, that there must be a signed contract coming to Cisco. Clearly not.
I remember the good old days when you actually had to use a trademark to protect it!
Well, I guess they should have kept the “iTV” and gone with “Apple Phone”.
Live and learn, I guess.
Cisco owns the trademark, Apple sholdnt be allowed to use it, period. It´s called copyright laws. You can´t argue that Cisco has the right to sue, and I think they are doing the right thing. End of discussion.
I just find it funny that they are willing to break the law to keep that name, since the iBrand is so last season. The funniest part is that they are getting sued for something they haven´t even finished, in short, vaporware.
COMMENT FROM CISCO – Intellectual property is the lifeblood of Silicon Valley and we all have to protect our property. The iPhone trademark is owned by Cisco, as noted in your story. We (Cisco) had hoped to reach an agreement to share our trademark with Apple, yet they decided to use the name without our agreement, so we, unfortunately, are having to go to court to stop them from using the name. This is not about money. We still hope we can reach an agreement, but when your neighbor steals your property, you have no recourse other than to call the cops and file a complaint. Full Cisco statement at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/corp_011007.html
9. “Cisco owns the trademark, Apple sholdnt be allowed to use it, period. It´s called copyright laws.”
God who knew that such complete ignorance could be so fricken funny!
My guess is that Cisco couldn’t get a good deal from Apple. Apple has the iPhone trademark globally last time I checked. Cisco knows how successful Apple’s phone will be, so they probably wanted a percentage of the sales. Apple says no, and we now have a lawsuit.
If you want answers to most of your queries and Cisco’s motivation, you can see more flavor on this issue on Cisco’s blog from our General Counsel, Mark Chandler, here: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/01/update_on_ciscos_iphone_tradem.html
Cisco’s products are usually called ‘ip’ somethings… like ipPhone..
like their 7900 series or even the handheld..
Where is their product? ip/cell/edge ?
In fact Cisco calls it an ip phone even on their own website…
http://tinyurl.com/y8gauj
Apple could call it a ‘can of soup’ and I would still buy two!
Cisco left out in the cold? again?
Looks like Cisco will have to transfer more execs to India…
This is great. It’s about time someone went after Apple for a change. You get sick of their smugness after a while.
#13
Fully agree with you, Ryan. It all boils down to percentage.
What more iPHONE free (cheap) publicity and awareness for the Apple product?
Clever marketing, I say …
Ok, how about some names for the Apple whatchacallit?
There are plenty of smart ass bloggers out there..
How about the juice?
a ‘Communicator’… aka Star Trek… oh. I like that..
Hand held Digital Entertainment provider thingie… HDEP
?????
Well Apple should have known that you cant just jump into a totally different business without conseqences.
woot cisco!!
/cheer
Wow… Look at all the replies to this story that didn’t address the main fact: They were already in negotiations… this is just a (normal) move by a company to protect the asset it is selling.
A number of you should consider suicide. Really.
woot casio!!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/casio-sells-its-one-billionth-calculator/
#2, why because Cisco products have a history of flopping? I don’t think they do, at least not for businesses they are, after all, one of the most successful networking products companies. Just because you don’t own something that says Cisco in your house doesn’t mean they aren’t a large and profitable company that does a lot of business and sells a lot of units. You probably don’t have a Hobart mixer in your house either but they are tremendously successful in commercial kitchens. Some would argue there’s a lot more money and a lot less headache selling to businesses rather than consumers.
#7, Cisco actually does have an iPhone product under the Linksys brand. It’s fairly new so it may just be something they took to market to leverage in negotiations with Apple but such is the nature of the intellectual property business.
Pretty funny that the very laws apple has been hiding under for years has finally come around to bite them squarely in the ass.
I’d suspect Cisco is going to collect a hefty sum of cash to let apple use the ‘iPhone’ name.
Good work, Cisco. Stick it to those apple dorks.
And james hill, suggesting people commit suicide over remarks on a message board? Time to seek therapy!
Why therapy? You failed at understanding the issue at hand, proven by your idiotic comment you can’t support.
Your death would make it so I wouldn’t have to read such stupidity… at least from you. Sounds like a good start to me.
w00t!!!11 tallwookie. Hey, you got me started, d00d.
Never heard of Cisco being considered a “loser.” They own the Linksys brand, if you’re thinking small network devices, and VoIP giant Vonage sells Linksys with their contracts. And Cisco is everywhere there’s big network iron. Failure? Hardly.
Dallas (#18) might be right, though. Cisco owns the trademark, Apple is in a position to force Cisco to sue in order to protect it. Apple reaps a lot of publicity at Cisco’s expense. THEN Apple signs the contract.
I’d ask John Earnhardt (#10) if Cisco knew about this in advance (let us never use terms like “in cahoots”) but if Cisco did, I doubt Mr Earnhardt would be authorized to say so.
Anyone who thinks Apple is getting burnt or their dues is silly.
Steve Jobs knew he didn’t have the trademark, he decided he didn’t care and wanted the only logical name for his product for the launch.
Apple will be writing off whatever happens as a business expense and they will still easily make a profit. The worst thing that could happen is Cisco getting a couple of million dollars for infringing on the trademark of a Cisco product that no one has ever heard of.
Steve Jobs doesn’t care; he used the name he wanted for the launch and if Apple has to expense a mil or 2, that’s fine by him.
So many silly comments in this blog entry by people that clearly don’t know much about how big businesses operate. Microsoft has been infringing copyrights, breaking contracts and violating trademarks for years willfully because if you are big, it pays.
Did he say iPhone? I think it was all a spelling mistake.
He ment iFone.
Really, they have six months before the final name for the product needs to be decided.
Yes Cisco had the trademark. Yes, Apple will sell a tonne of these phones. What will the final name for the phone be? We’ll find out in June.
#28 pretty close..
and exactly why we like to cut them to ribbons
Check out the LinkSys iPhone…
You decide which phone you want.
http://tinyurl.com/y593hy