Well, looks like Cisco has had a change of heart. They announced today that they have filed a lawsuit against Apple to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark.
From the press release:
“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco. “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,” Chandler concluded.
With its lawsuit, Cisco is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Apple from copying Cisco’s iPhone trademark.
My guess…and this is just my guess…is that this is, and maybe always has been, a ploy by Cisco for some free publicity. They’ll be getting a ton of mileage out of this now that Apple’s iPhone has been announced, and has recieved so much attention.
There is no way that Apple went into this Keynote without feeling sure that they had come to terms with Cisco on this matter.
Frankly, I hope they just drop the iPhone name…I don’t think it’s that great anyway…but no matter what happens, if this isn’t settled (which I’m betting it will be after Cisco gets in the papers for a few days) there is going to be a lot of confusion on the part of the casual consumer.
I have had several non-techie friends come up to me today wanting to know more about the iPhone and how it works (I think I pitched the thing half a dozen times today), and those same people are going to be confused if the name of the device changes.
Either way, we’ll be covering this as much as possible.
via MacRumors
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phone is looking pretty good right now, alongside yesterday’s iTV (er, tv) announcement
To be honest I was disappointed when it was called iPhone because I thought Apple was done using “i” and had moved on to “Mac” or “”. They should’ve seen that coming and escape the lawsuit by naming it something else like phone or MacPhone. They sound better anyway. I like phone.
My favorite choice is still MacMobile, but I definetly think they should drop the “i”…it’s not worth a court battle…or even a licensing fee. Why pay Cisco anything at all when you can just call it something else?
I’m sick of the “i” prefix. It’s played out. I know they have alot of brand equity in it, but I think they’ve trapped themselves. The iPhone could have been their way out, but oh well.
The sad thing is that it’s all the third party folks that make all the crap for Macs and iPod that have driven the “i” into the ground. But it doesn’t look as though Apple’s ready to break away from it yet.