Apple and Cisco have agreed to share the iPhone brand, with Cisco dismissing its lawsuit. (Read Wired commentary.)
A joint statement calls for the companies to work on interoperability between their products and ends a 40-day spat that began shortly after Apple announced the iPhone at January’s MacWorld conference. Cisco, the owners of the trademark, slapped the “iPhone” name on a generic IP phone late last year, rushing it to market in order to solidify their claim. This failed to extract an agreement from Cupertino before MacWorld’s announcment, though Apple repeatedly approached Cisco and discussions apparently went right to the wire, continuing after Cisco announced its legal action.
Apple and Cisco End Dispute, Agreeing to Share IPhone Brand [Gadget Lab via Bloomberg]
Well we knew they were going to work things out without having a messy lawsuit. Cisco didn’t have a very strong leg since they let the tradmark lapse, at the same time they did slap the iphone name on a product a little earlier. What I don’t understand is the interoperability between their products. One is a cell phone and the other a WiFi phone. is Apple going to add WiFi support or a WiFi model of the iphone™ to the lineup?
One thing to note is that Wireds analysts had this gem
“It looks like Cisco caved,” says independent tech analyst Rob Enderle. The pledge of interoperability talks “looks like the typical promise that (Apple CEO) Steve Jobs has no intention of keeping,” he says.
So I guess it does make sense that a WiFi iphone™ probably isn’t in the cards and more then likely Apple was the one coming out the winner in this.
Tags: Apple, Legal, Technology
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