By David Ponce
Didn’t even take a day and Apple managed to get itself sued. Here’s what happened.
Apple doesn’t own the rights to the name “iPhone”. Cisco does. They acquired the rights back in 2000, when they bought Infogear, a small Redwood City, Calif., start-up and now use the name through a Lynksys line of VoIP handsets. Up until 8PM, Monday evening, Cisco and Apple representatives were in negotiations over the use of the name. Seems Cisco was (reluctantly) open to letting Apple use the name, but only if they made their iPhone compatible with Cisco products.
Cisco made it clear they did not want Apple to announce the phone until negotiations were done. So, of course, on Tuesday, the iPhone is announced.
Not even a day later, and Cisco’s filed a lawsuit seeking temporary injunction against Apple to stop them using the name, and seeking damages. Apple’s defense? “Plenty other companies use the name, and Cisco’s claim to it is ‘tenuous at best’”.
Them’s fighting words, Apple…
[News.com ]
