…this is not a suit against Apple’s innovation, their modern design, or their cool phone. It is not a suit about money or royalties. This is a suit about trademark infringement.
Moreover, in their filing, CISCO presents evidence of how Apple tried to surreptitiously obtain the rights to use the name through a shell company – Ocean Telecom Services LLC in Trinidad and Tobago of all places! They also filed an application in Australia for the trademark. I know a lot of companies have shell corporations for this kind of stuff, but to do it after CISCO wouldn’t give up the trademark was a lowly act by an otherwise classy company.
Give it up Apple. CISCO is the rightful owner of the trademark no matter how much you want to whine about it now. They sell very similar products under the same moniker and have done so for a while. Apple’s spokesman termed the lawsuit “silly” because Apple is the first one to call a “Cellphone” an iPhone. Give me a break – if I were the judge that listened to that explanation I would come down on Apple like a ton of bricks. I love this company but sometimes Steve Jobs’ ego gets in the way of rational thought. How would Apple (legal) react if CISCO came out with a new network router tomorrow and called it the iPod?
I am not naive to think that CISCO is pure as the driven snow in this affair. The fact that they said this is NOT about money is very telling. They talk about interoperability and openness. Translation – Apple has a kewl product(s) and they want IN. Other than the Geeks CISCO is not a household named among teenagers, and teenagers buy iPods not networking equipment. But they own something Apple wants – the iPhone name and they got it first, fair and square. So Apple need to either make a deal with CISCO (which seems unlikely at this point), or call the darn thing an ApplePhone or MacPhone or whatever else. And for good measure, send a few free ones to CISCO with an iTunes gift card.