AP: Cisco sues Apple over use of iPhone name
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc.'s much-ballyhooed iPhone was unveiled this week after 30 months and millions of dollars in top-secret development. But the sleek new iPod-cellular phone combination could wind up costing the company a lot more.
Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest networking equipment maker, sued Apple in San Francisco federal court on Wednesday, claiming that Apple's iPhone violates its trademark.
Cisco is asking the court to forbid Apple from using the name "iPhone," which Cisco has held a trademark on since 2000 and used to brand a line of its own Internet-enabled phones that began shipping last spring and officially launched three weeks ago.
Cisco said Apple approached the company several years ago seeking to use the name, and the two Silicon Valley tech giants have been negotiating ever since to hammer out a licensing agreement.
But Cisco said the talks broke down just hours before Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, took to the stage Tuesday at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo to introduce the multimedia device.
This development has drawn much suprise from media outlets such as DealBreaker and others. The standard response is surprise that Apple, a company that is so meticulous in planning and controlling every single detail of their operations could let something like this slip up at the eleventh hour.
My take is this: they've already got a better name picked out, they're just generating some drama, and an extra smidge of publicity on top of the exisiting Old Media/New Media/Blogosphere frenzy.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Apple deliberately toying with Cisco over iPhone name
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At the risk of revealing just how "unplugged in" I am, I want to suggest another idea about the "iPhone" name controversy. I think Apple and Jobs are simply out to steal the name - in at least the arena of everyday references if not the legal arena - and there may be very little Cisco can do about it. Consider that "iPod" has become the universal noun used to refer to personal mp3 players. If Jay Leno wants to make a tech joke that refers to mp3 players he will call them "iPods" because everybody understands what he means instantly.
Now I had no idea that Cisco already had product in the marketplace called "iPhone", let alone that this name had been their trademark since 2000 - and I think most people were equally ignorant of these facts. When Apple intoduced their new product this week I couldn't imagine them calling it anything other than "iPhone" - just as I fully expect the next product offered by McDonalds to be called "Mc-whatever". I think Jobs and Apple understand the ubiquitous nature of their keenly crafted "iSpeak" way of naming their products and are simply going where the public expects them to go. It won't matter if they are forced by a court decision to change the name of their product, everyone will call it an "iPhone" in day-to-day conversation - just like we call every brand of tissue paper "Kleenex" - even if it drives Proctor and Gamble (makers of Puffs brand tissues) nuts.
A few years ago there was a movie about Gates, Jobs and the rise of their two business empires called "Pirates of Silicon Valley".
Never underestimate a pirate. Arrrrr!
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