IPhone litigation

There were a few products called "iPhone" that were released prior to Apple's own iPhone devices, leading to litigation involving claims of .
== Trademark status in the United States ==
 had first produced a desktop "iPhone" in 1998 and was acquired by , which itself acquired the "iPhone" in 2000. However, Cisco stopped releasing the iPhone products in 2001. Upon discovering that Apple had been developing its own iPhone, Cisco scrambled to renew its iPhone trademark, which was about to expire. Cisco then negotiated with Apple right up until 8pm during the night before the 2007 keynote address in which Steve Jobs revealed Apple's first iPhone. Before finalizing the deal to use the name and commit to interoperability of products from the two companies, Cisco had intended to use the trademark for their VoIP products.What the first ‘iPhone’ looked like… back in 1998 by Yoni Heisler, Yahoo! Finance. 2015-08-11.Cisco Sues Apple over iPhone Patent, BusinessWeek. 2007-01-11. Archived 2016-02-15. Apple, on the other hand, stated that their product wouldn't have any VoIP capabilities. They wanted it to be a from the very beginning.Why did iPhone talks collapse? by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News, ZDNet UK. 2007-01-12. Archived 2007-01-14.
Red Herring reported that the iPhone trademark could have cost Apple as much as $325 million dollars per year, which would have represented around 15% of Apple's revenue in 2006.iPhone Brand Could Run Apple $325M Yearly, Red Herring. 2007-01-11. Archived 2007-03-09. However, Cisco may have already forfeited their rights to the trademark in the United States because of failing to put it in active use by their filing deadline of November 16, 2005. Cisco attempted to address this during their grace period by placing an "iPhone" sticker on one of their pre-existing products.Cisco might have lost iPhone trademark in '06 by Paul Miller, Engadget. 2007-01-13.
=== Ocean Telecom Services ===
Prior to the deal, Cisco claimed that Apple had created a phony company called "Ocean Telecom Services LLC", which did business in . The company filed an Intent to Use the brand name iPhone on September 2006. The priority date for it was March 2006, based on the filing of the same name in Trinidad and Tobago. When Apple registered the iPhone name in Australia, their priority date was the same, based on the very same filing. Ocean Telecom's address (based in ) is owned by "CT Corporation", a registered agent which could forward every legal document to Apple.Cisco claims Apple used phony company to get name by Ed Burnette, ZDNet. 2007-01-10. Archived 2007-01-19.
=== Cisco's intentions ===
 senior VP and general counsel Mark Chandler mentioned in his blog about the legal dispute regarding the rights on the trademark for "iPhone". He stated that it wasn't all about the money, but Cisco wanted cooperation. The company wanted future phones from Cisco subsidiary Linksys, which actually held the rights to the iPhone trademark, to be compatible with Apple's mobile phones.UPDATE on Cisco's iPhone Trademark by Mark Chandler, News@Cisco Notes. 2007-01-10. Archived 2007-01-15.
== Trademark status in Australia ==
Apple registered the iPhone trademark in Australia in September 2006, based on a priority date of March 2006 (from a filing in Trinidad and Tobago).Apple Registers iPhone Trademark by Arnold Kim, MacRumors. 2002-12-02.
== Trademark status in Canada ==
 owned the IPhone brand name in Canada, and had been using it for their VoIP services since 2004. It even had a wireless device called IPhone Mobile. Yuval Barzakay, Comwave's president and chief executive, commented in a press release:
:"There's no confirmed reports that Apple will launch IPhone in Canada, and there's no trademark designation on their IPhone logo. So we're not quite sure where they're headed with that."re: iPhone in Canada by Comwave, Canada East.
== Trademark status in Europe ==
Trademark specialist Lee Curtis of , the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, suggested that Cisco was also at risk of losing the iPhone trademark in Europe, because the trademark had not been officially used in Europe during the last five years. A German law firm, CMS, already filed a request to revoke the rights to use the iPhone name by Cisco. If the court would decide against Cisco, the iPhone trademark would go Apple, which was next in line to register the trademark.Cisco on brink of losing iPhone name in Europe, The Register. 2007-01-12.
==References==
==External links==
*iPhone at Infogear (archived 1999-05-08)
*iPhone at Linksys (archived 2007-04-06)
* and at Wikipedia
Category:iPhone