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Hold the iPhone. The Cisco versus Apple trademark dispute hasn’t
been resolved, but negotiations have been extended. Late Thursday
Cisco (Quote) issued a statement that it is granting
Apple’s request for more time to reply to the lawsuit filed by the networrking giant.
“Cisco has agreed to give Apple an extension until Wednesday, Feb.
21. Cisco is fully committed to using the extra time to reach a
mutually beneficial resolution,” the company stated in a media
release.
A Cisco spokesman emailed internetnews.com that the
brief statement was all the company would have to say about the matter
for now, while the two companies engage in “an on-going negotiation”
related to the iPhone trademark.
On January 10 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of California against its
Silicon Valley neighbor Apple (Quote). The lawsuit seeks
to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and
using what Cisco said is its registered iPhone trademark. Apple CEO
Steve Jobs formally unveiled the iPhone
product the day before Cisco’s suit. Apple’s iPhone is not slated to
be available until June.
Cisco said it obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after
completing the acquisition
of Infogear. Infogear previously owned the mark and sold iPhone
products for several years. The original Infogear filing for the iPhone trademark
dates to March 20, 1996.
Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping a new family of
iPhone products since early last year. As recently as December 18,
Linksys expanded the iPhone family with additional products.
Apple was not available for comment. Last month, in response to
Cisco’s lawsuit, an Apple spokeperson, Natalie Kerris, told
internetnews.com that Cisco’s trademark claim is “silly”
because there are several companies using the iPhone name for Voice over IP
products. “Cisco’s U.S. trademark is tenuous at best [because it’s
being used by others]. We’re the first to use the iPhone name for a
cell phone,” Kerris said.
This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.
