Cisco sues Apple over iPhone

It didn’t take Cisco Systems Inc. long to lay its claim to the iPhone brand.
Just one day after Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs garnered headlines by showcasing Apple’s upcoming multimedia handset, Cisco filed suit over the iPhone trademark, which it acquired in 2000. “Apple’s infringement constitutes a willful and malicious violation of Cisco’s trademark rights, aimed at preventing Cisco from continuing to build a business around a mark that it has long possessed,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.
Industry insiders and technology enthusiasts had expected the move by Cisco, which secured the trademark when it bought Infogear, a manufacturer of iPhone-branded products. Infogear originally filed for the iPhone trademark in 1996, Cisco claimed. Cisco has been shipping Voice over IP products under the iPhone brand for a year.
Apple’s iPhone announcement followed years of negotiations between the two companies over the iPhone brand, according to the suit.
“Fully aware that Cisco owned the rights to the iPhone mark, Apple first approached Cisco in 2001 about the possibility of acquiring or licensing the rights to iPhone,” Cisco’s filing claims. “Apple has continued making such requests to Cisco through the present, including several times in 2006. Each time, Apple was told that Cisco was not interested in ceding the mark to Apple.”
Apple executives were not immediately available to RCR Wireless News for comment, but the company has noted that several companies market Internet-based voice products under the iPhone brand. Indeed, The Internet Phone Company, Comwave and Linksys, among others, use the iPhone moniker.
The iPhone controversy isn’t Apple’s first legal tussle over a high-profile name. The company has an ongoing feud with Apple Corp., the Beatles-owned record label, winning the most recent legal round in May.