The news
Apple's bright tomorrows don't look quite so shiny now after Cisco Systems revealed that it is suing the company over the trademark 'iPhone' - the name used for the combined mobile phone/iPod that the Steve Jobs unveiled in his keynote address at this week's Macworld.
Cisco's law suit - issued in the US District Court for Northern California - alleges trademark infringement, unfair competition, false description and injury to business reputation. Cisco is demanding a trial by jury to settle the matter.
In its submission to the court, Cisco points out that it has been using the iPhone name on a number of comparable products sold under its Linksys brand and that Linksys has held the rights to the name for a long time.
That's something that Apple will have understood only too well. The two firms, Cisco said, had been negotiating about Apple's use of the name right up until the evening before Jobs' announcement!
Linksys WIP iPhones
Linksys CIT iPhones
Apple's contentious iPhone (click
for larger image)Although Cisco's suit casts a shadow over Apple and the choice of name for its headline-grabbing product, what we don't know is whether it will in any material affect what Apple does - usually, the lawyers manage to sort these things out after the exchange of large sums of money and various intellectual rights.
We may have a better idea, though, once financial analysts give their take and this is reflected in changes to Apple's share price - for which we'll have to wait until the US stock markets wake up.
Apple's share price currently stands at $97 - and that's a massive rise even from the high point that it closed at on Tuesday, the day of Jobs' keynote.
One weird little coincidence that may tickle your fancy is that Tuesday's high was $80.86. Remove the dollar sign and the decimal point and what you get is 8086 - the model number of the Intel CPU behind the X86 CPU architecture that so many of us use today on Windows which is also behind the regeneration of sales of Mac computers following Apple's switch to Intel.
So how do you reckon this is all going to pan out? Read Cisco's press release on page two (we've yet to see a formal response from Apple) - and check out Cisco's legal submission if you have a mind to - then share your thoughts with us in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.
HEXUS.links
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External.links
Apple UK - home pageApple USA - home page
Linksys - iPhone model range
Cisco Systems - law suit against Apple (PDF - 772KB)
Cisco Systems - home page
