Dueling iPhones: Can You Say Lawsuit?

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on January 10

I wondered when this would happen and now its official. Apple and Cisco Systems will be going to court. Cisco is suing Apple over the iPhone trademark. As I type its been barely 36 hours since Steve Jobs’ keynote address in San Francisco and already it’s spawning lawsuits. That must be some kind of record.

Cisco, you’ll remember acquired the iPhone trademark after acquiring in 2000 a long-forgotten company called Infogear which had tried selling a product called the iPhone in 1997, which a BusinessWeek reporter noted at the time.

I caught up with a Cisco spokeswoman yesterday who gave me a statement that sounded distinctly like a shot across Apple’s bow: “Given Apple’s numerous requests to use Cisco’s iPhone trademark over the past several years and our extensive discussions with them recently, it is our belief that with their announcement today Apple intends to agree to the final documents and public statements that were distributed to them last night and which address a few remaining items. We expect to receive a signed agreement today.”

That was yesterday. I guess we know how that turned out.

Here’s the latest statement from Cisco senior vice president and general counsel Mark Chandler: “Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name. There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission. Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand.”

UPDATE at 7:45 P.M. EST
I just got a call from an Apple spokeswoman on this subject who told me the following: “We think Cisco’s trademark lawsuit is silly. There are already several companies using the name iPhone for voice over IP products. We believe its US trademark registration is tenuous at best. Apple is the first company to ever use the iphone name for a cell phone. If Cisco wants to challenge us we are very confident we will prevail.”

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