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Cisco Suing Apple For iPhone Trademark Infringement

Patent and Copyright are very different things.

You mean (c) copyright.


Cisco had nothing to defend against - a rumoured product from Apple that everyone referred to as 'iPhone'.

Cisco cannot tell everyone not to use the word 'iPhone' when referencing a rumour! LOL.
When I mean everyone - I mean the general public.

Cisco are now defending their copyright now there is a real ( public known )Apple product called iPhone.

Remember Rendezvous? Apple had to rename it to Bonjour despite using the Rendezvous name for a while. It was only after a period of time did the other company who had the trademark 'Rendezvous' enforce it. Apple were forced a name change.


davey-nb said:
One must defend the patent to maintain it.
Infogear held the patent for many years before being bought by Cisco and it appears they never tried to enforce it.
It is not enough for Cisco to decide to enforce it now.
Click to expand...
 
Stella said:
Patent and Copyright are very different things.

You mean (c) copyright.

Cisco had nothing to defend against - a rumoured product from Apple that everyone referred to as 'iPhone'.

Cisco cannot tell everyone not to use the word 'iPhone' when referencing a rumour! LOL.
Click to expand...

"We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly," said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman.
Several companies already use the name "iPhone" for Voice-over-Internet products, Kerris said.

Infogear and Cisco had the resposibility to defend the patent for years.
This has nothing to do with copyright.
 
From The Guardian newspaper

The Guardian: AAPL Will Keep Name
By Charles Arthur / Apple 09:47pm

The more we look into this, the more it becomes (as Malcolm Gladwell points out in an excellent New Yorker article) like a mystery, not a puzzle - that is, the answers were all out there already, but needed to be put together. (Gladwell's piece is about Enron. Highly recommended.)

Apple did indeed register the "iPhone" trademark in the US, and it was granted in September 2006. Don't believe us? See this page. Sure, it's down for "Ocean Telecom Services", but the description (not to mention the typography) are all that Apple gear. And as 10layers noted in October, Apple had been filing with the same description all over the world, including the UK.

Now, if you look at the results of a search in the US Patent and Trademark Office for "iPhone", you get 9 results, of which 6 have been abandoned. The only others, besides Apple, are for a hotel internal phone, and Cisco's, which arguably doesn't conflict with the Apple one - the trademark is in a different field, of "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks", not "handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data..."
 
Its not a patent!!! Its trademark.

A patent is to protect an idea, a trademark is a name.

Its the name iPhone - its a trademark

Sorry, in my previous post I referred to copyright when I meant Trademark.


davey-nb said:
"We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly," said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman.
Several companies already use the name "iPhone" for Voice-over-Internet products, Kerris said.

Infogear and Cisco had the resposibility to defend the patent for years.
This has nothing to do with copyright.
Click to expand...
 
I think Cisco's only claim is to the name "iPhone". If you read the patent here or here, you will see that Cisco's iPhone and Apples are totally different devices, at least from what I can gather from the patent speak.

Cisco's is intendeded to connect to a computer network and server, thus it is a network appliance.

Apple's on the other hand connects to a cellular network, thus it is a cellular phone. I think it is quite intentional that it doesn't (or at least isn't mentioned) sync or connect to a computer over a computer network to avoid getting into any gray areas. I know it can connect to the internet over wifi, but who doesn't.
 
Exactly!!

Just like the Newton was actually only the OS, though everyone called the physical product that, when infact is was realy the MessagePad with Newton OS.

So. this is the apple phone with iphone OS, but everyone will call it iPhone
 
I hope apple rips them a new one. I understand that Cisco has the trademark (on something that wasn't even on the market at the time, but seriously, are we supposed to take their iPhone seriously? I think they introduced it just so they would have grounds to sue apple.
Cisco has been putting out crappy products (just look at the wrt54gc fiasco) and even worse customer service for years now.
It's my hope they are dealt a loss and shrivle up and die somewhere in a corner...just my 2 cents.

Can you tell I've had bad experiences with Cisco?
 
I've always like "iPod Phone"... it capitalizes on an already established brand name.

"iCell", anyone?

iPhone just sounds.... smarmy. "Hey dude, I just bought an iphoneand I can use it as an iPod too!

Maybe it is time to retire the "i".
 
Stella said:
Its not a patent!!! Its trademark.

A patent is to protect an idea, a trademark is a name.

Its the name iPhone - its a trademark

Sorry, in my previous post I referred to copyright when I meant Trademark.
Click to expand...

Yes but the failure to defend the Trademark againt the previous infringers negates its validity.
 
There are a lot of fools in this world.... btw, what do they both do? They both make phone calls. Granted in different ways but both do the same thing.

What if Cisco wants to get into the cell phone business?

matthewroth said:
ARG, they are not the same product, only a fool would confuse them, look at the patents, one is VOIP landline one is mobile!!!!!
Click to expand...
 
MS has also been sued by everyone in the world by now too.

Digital Skunk said:
M$ made it nice and easy for me... :D

Try it it's not very hard....

p.s. I really have nothing against M$... It just grinds my gears when people try to stick up for M$ by bashing Apple or any other computer company. Like M$ was the greatest gift to computers.

Pssh!
Click to expand...
 
Cisco have had iPhone products since 2004, and under Netgear since 2000.

What does it matter about how Cisco perform and the quality of their products? Please, be constructive - panning their products like you have done below, doesn't do the debate any good.. They still have the trademark.

Personally, I like the wrt54gc, its a great router.

merman637 said:
I hope apple rips them a new one. I understand that Cisco has the trademark (on something that wasn't even on the market at the time, but seriously, are we supposed to take their iPhone seriously? I think they introduced it just so they would have grounds to sue apple.
Cisco has been putting out crappy products (just look at the wrt54gc fiasco) and even worse customer service for years now.
It's my hope they are dealt a loss and shrivle up and die somewhere in a corner...just my 2 cents.

Can you tell I've had bad experiences with Cisco?
Click to expand...

davey-nb said:
Yes but the failure to defend the Trademark againt the previous infringers negates its validity.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. We shall have to see how this plays out.
 
Naming convention

daysleeper said:
I've always like "iPod Phone"... it capitalizes on an already established brand name.

"iCell", anyone?

iPhone just sounds.... smarmy. "Hey dude, I just bought an iphoneand I can use it as an iPod too!

Maybe it is time to retire the "i".
Click to expand...

My thought was just to call it the aPhone for "Apple Phone." Alternatively, it could be called aiPhone for Apple internet phone. ai also implies "artificial intelligence" which sounds a lot smarter than "smart" phone.

You could rename Apple TV, aTV or aiTV.

Thank about it. Someone asks you what kind of cool phone you have. You answer, "I have aPhone." Right, but what kind of phone is it? It's aPhone! Uh, I can see that it's a phone but who makes it? Ohhh...Apple! Ahhhh!

Could make for some funny commercials.
 
daysleeper said:
I've always like "iPod Phone"... it capitalizes on an already established brand name.

"iCell", anyone?

iPhone just sounds.... smarmy. "Hey dude, I just bought an iphoneand I can use it as an iPod too!

Maybe it is time to retire the "i".
Click to expand...

...or just iCall?

Or even, when they get the video-chat part working, just use the iChat moniker for the whole thing?

just a thought...

nig.
 
Seriously people get a grip.

It's not like Apple is building the same thing and then naming it the same.

1. Cisco's trademark is poorly defended. Look at all the iPhone products out there that are not from Cisco.

2. Apple has a trademark for iPhone too.

3. They are completely different devices. Just because you can call from them doesn't make them the same. That would be the same as saying my CD player and my iPod are the same. Cisco's VP's analogy about the iPod is just bad.
 
everybody can just stop now.
the discussion is going loop, settle downed previously got stirred up again.

everybody just go back read, and stop wasting resources of the forum. :p

and wtheck, ur discussion solve nothing, apple's official statement or cisco's blog won't change fact neither, how about wait for the court?
 
pianojoe said:
P.S. If you've wondered why the phone won't be coming to Europe before Christmas: They'll need to add GPRS/UMTS, or they won't stand a chance. EDGE isn't available in Europe.
Click to expand...

If that's true then Europe is WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY behind even South Africa. We have GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA;) :)
 
whatever said:
Maybe we should have a naming contest.

How about calling it the Newton.
Or Accident, as in what it will cause when used in a car.

I hope my posts don't appear back to back, I feel like such a loser when that happens.
Click to expand...

I vote for the [apple logo]Phone much like the mark for [apple logo]TV

In fact now that they've cleared up the issues with Apple Records... all their products should be labeled that way
 
I wish that Apple had just named it <apple>Phone like they did the TV and let Cisco sit on the name forever without getting a dime.
 
cxny said:
Why not just pick a new name altogether, afterall it's not just a phone. I don't know why thay can't come up with something it seems to be a particular skill at Apple. How's iEverythingbutthekitchensink?
Click to expand...

Greatest Name Ever Mentioned!:D
 
iWorks/iBiz

I have an app that I use in my recording studio for timing sessions and invoicing which was called iWorks. I'm not sure of the timing on the name change-whether it was before Steve Jobs Keynote or shortly after-but my iWorks app suddenly had a revision and it was iBiz.
Not sure of the details of the change dollar wise but have a feeling that the owners got a few bucks......... :)

iBiz is a nice app, BTW. Check it out at:

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibiz/
 
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