Cisco announced late yesterday that they are suing Apple, to stop them from using the trademark iPhone. By now everyone is aware that back on December 18, Cisco’s Linksys division released a suite of products with the iPhone moniker, which now appears to be the point that negotiations with Apple over the possible sale or licensing of the iPhone name broke down.
(Word is that there was a deal in place which would allow Apple use of the name.)
Early response is mixed between some suggesting that Apple just rename their offering “Apple Phone” or some other such non-offensive label, and others who seem to believe that the market has already decided that this product will forever be known as the iPhone anyway, so why bother with the lawsuit.
I read in the Comments section of Om Malik’s blog that iPhone is only Cisco’s trademark here in the U.S., which spins up a whole ‘nother interesting angle to this whole mess.
What will happen is anyone’s guess, and there are already a number of blogs out there seeking requests from their readers on coming up with new names for the iPhone.
I’ve got a few ideas of my own:
- iCan’t Believe It’s Not Cisco!
- iCandy?
- iNfringement?
- iBob
What do you think?
