Apple Inc., Cisco and the iPhone

02/02/07

Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are stopping their lawsuits over the iPhone and could go back to solve the issue through negotiations, according to media reports Friday.

Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are stopping their lawsuits over the iPhone and could go back to solve the issue through negotiations, according to media reports Friday.


With Cisco's lawsuit against Apple still remaining pending, the two companies have agreed to give more time to Apple before it going to respond in court.

They will now negotiate matters including trademark rights and interoperability, the companies were quoted as saying in San Jose, California.

The aim is to reach an agreement on the matter "without fighting the court battle," they said.

Cisco makes routers and switches to link networks and power the Internet. It has owned the trademark on the name "iPhone" since 2000. In the spring of 2006, it began shipping its own line of iPhone-branded Internet-enabled phones.

Last month, Apple announced its cell phone-iPod-Internet communications device and called it "iPhone."

The next day after the announcement, negotiations on trademark rights between them ended abruptly. Cisco went to the court and sued Apple, claiming trademark infringement. Cisco claimed Apple's new device is "deceptively and confusingly similar" to its own line of wireless phones.

On its part, Apple said it is entitled to use the name "iPhone" because its device operates over a cellular network. Unlike Cisco's phones, it said, the device uses the Internet. Apple planed to start marketing the product in June as one top leader insisted, "If Cisco wants to challenge us, we're confident we'll prevail."


Under the U.S. federal law, two companies may share a trademark as long as their uses are not confusingly similar.