Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark infringement

Only yesterday we had been reporting on extensive negotiations between Apple and Cisco over the use of the iPhone trademark. A preprepared statement from Cisco yesterday implied that talks had been proceeding well and that they were expecting the receipt of a signed document from Apple on Tuesday.

Clearly something has gone wrong. On Wednesday evening Cisco announced that negotiations with Apple had broken down and they were now suing Apple for trademark infringement in federal court.

“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,” said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco.

Further to this it is believed Cisco wanted Apple to somehwhat open the iPhone so that the recently launched Cisco iPhones could work with them.

“We wanted to make sure to differentiate the brands in a way that could work for both companies and not confuse people, since our products combine both web access and voice telephony,” said a Cisco statement on the matter.

Cisco have had ownership of the iPhone trademark after acquiring it as part of their acquisition of Infogear in 2000. Infogear had previously sold phones branded as the iPhone.

Indeed, Apple are in a bad situation. Jobs stated publicly in his keynote presentation that Apple had been working on their iPhone for 2 1/2 years, long after Cisco had acquired the trademark. Fortunately for Apple, the companies will have 6 months to resolve their dispute before the iPhone is shipped to customers in June.