Apple, Cisco Settle iPhone Trademark Lawsuit

A number of readers let us know that Cisco and Apple have settled the lawsuit over the use of the iPhone name for Apple's new multimedia phone. The agreement allows Apple and Cisco both to use the iPhone brand on their own products. Also, the companies said they would explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, consumer and business communications. Apple still faces a suit over the name in Canada and one over its touch-screen technology in the UK.

Cisco?

[mfh]

Doesn't Cisco face a possible lawsuit also in Canada over the name?

First move to making it generic?

[Andy_R]

Apple can win this one in the long term by making the term generic. There is no public confusion over the name, nobody but the most blatant Cisco shill or eBay fraudster would actaully mix up the two products (or 3 if you count the Canadian one).

After the first (non-3g) model's lifespan is over Apple can safely trademark the "iPhone 3G", "iPhone Nano" and all other variants, protecting their products while allowing the first part of the name to become generic. Once that happens, they could tell Cisco where to stick this deal.

Come again?

[Aqua_boy17]

(sic)and one over its touch-screen technology in the UK.

Touch screen technology is patented? I support two different brands of laptops that both use touch screens and I'm sure there are others out there. I don't believe they all use the same underylying configuration, but I could be wrong. Does anyone know if this patent only applies to phones, or to mobile devices in general? TFA doesn't really specify.

Re:Copy or not

[geighaus]

Still mac enthusiasts call Vista an OSX clone forgetting that many Vista features appeared in the alpha versions of Vista way before they made it to OSX. Don't you love double standards.

Re:Total Victory - Wrong!

[oohshiny]

That doesn't make sense. Cisco had the iPhone trademark before Apple, and Apple knew that. If Apple didn't want Cisco to be able to make demands on them, Apple could simply have called their phone something else and avoided the whole mess.

I think Apple provoked the whole dispute for publicity reasons.

Show me the money before you make the argument.

[mschuyler]

A number of posts here are alluding to Apple's payment of large amounts of money to Cisco. They argue that Apple "lost" because of this large payment of money, in one post up to $4 billion. My question is:

What money? How much money? How do you know? Where's the evidence?

Or are you just basing your arguments on idle speculation of what you wish would have happened?

A Theory: The Tom Sawyer Gambit

[mschuyler]

This is just a theory, a possibility. I don't insist upon it. I'm just trying to fit what we know into the framework without idle speculation that Apple paid money to Cisco, which I doubt. Arguments that they did are based on thin air. We do not know.

What if Apple used the Tom Sawyer Gambit?

Apple knows, of course, that Cisco has "the trademark" for iPhone, but it isn't a very good one. Why not? Because Cisco inherited it and did nothing with it. I suspect it was a "TM" trademark, not a "R-circle" trademark. A "TM" trademark is provisional. Once you get it you must demonstrate that you are serious by USING that trademark in INTERSTATE COMMERCE. If you do, then after a certain number of years you get on the coveted "register," (hence "R" with a circle around it.) Once you are on "the register" with your trademark, it's a lot harder to unseat you from owning that mark. But it's a "you use or you lose" proposition. Until you get there, you are vulnerable to losing the mark altogether. Apple knows this, too.

Apple would also like very much to be completely interoperable with Cisco equipment. Why? Because Cisco dominates the corporate market big time, and has a huge segment of the consumer market with LinkSys. But for one reason or another, Cisco isn't really that interested in Apple. Their focus is elsewhere, though VOIP is big, they just aren't thinking Apple is a potential player here. Apple can strut all it wants, but Cisco is looking the other way thinking Apple is just a toy.

Hmm, how to get Cisco's attention? Dangle "iPhone" in front of them like a carrot on a stick. "Hey, guys! I got your iPhone. Come chase me!" Big announcement, slap it up there in lights, and Apple runs like hell, but not too fast.

Bang!

Cisco bites the Apple, just like Eve, and sues. Publicity for both parties, bad or good, just spell my name right. Apple grins, begins negotiations. You'll notice it never got to court. "Hey, Cisco! You didn't use the mark. Your loss is our gain, but hey. We'll cooperate. How bout if we agree to partner up with you to make sure iPhone is compatible with all your, you know, stuff? We're gonna sell a billion of these things. Wanna be part of it? Oh, and you can keep using the mark, of course, if you have a product to stick it on, (snicker)."

So here's Apple, like Tom Sawyer, munching on a Red Delicious while his frie..., er, business partners, paint the fence for him.