Cisco VP Explains Lawsuit Against Apple

Dekortage writes "The day after Apple announced its iPhone, Cisco sued over the name. Mark Chandler, Cisco's SVP and General Counsel, has posted an explanation of the suit on his blog: 'For the last few weeks, we have been in serious discussions with Apple over how the two companies could work together and share the iPhone trademark. ...I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of "we're too busy."' What did Cisco want? '[We] wanted an open approach. We hoped our products could interoperate in the future.'" Another reader wrote to mention that already, Cisco's trademark might be in trouble in Europe.

Re:Find a better name

[InsaneProcessor]

I just trademarked "iDoorStop", "iPaperWieght", and "iNotFunny"

Re:Find a better name

[ubrgeek]

Well, there's no doubt you'll be able to win any lawsuit contesting, "iNotFunny" :)

It's a joke people ... There's no Troll here. Move along ..

Re:Cringely's opinion

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

It won't be long before we get the massive market re-branding: aPhone, aMac, and aPod

So soon I can tell all those mac fanbois to get aLife?

Laugh, it's funny.

There's just not enough laywer fun yet.

[Quiet_Desperation]

C'mon, Apple. Call it the WiiPhone. Or the XPhone360. Or the ApplePhone With Jay Leno. There's lawyers starving on the East Coast who desperately need the work, and having to settle for 5 series insetad of 7 series.

Translation

[Andy_R]

What did Cisco want? '[We] wanted an open approach.'

'What did Cisco want? [We] approached Steve and asked him to open his wallet'

Re:Cringely's opinion

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, they're not selling the aHole.

Everyone has one of those.

Re:Not patents

[Skreems]

Don't you mean "iAnal"?

Re:what were they thinking

[Quiet_Desperation]

It still all strikes me as a massive loss of perspective. I guess I just can't grok lawyerthink. Perhaps if I sustain a brutal head injury some day.

Re:MOD UP: Mod points going to Mac users today?

[Anonymous Coward]

They should do what they did in 1991

Call it the Sosumi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosumi [wikipedia.org]

Apple has a history of using unusual humor to its advantage

Re:MacPhone

[mrchaotica]

Well, they can't call it the "iGo" because then Toyota [wikipedia.org] would get mad.

Personally, I think it ought to be called "iPod" -- the multiple functions certainly make it more of a "pod" than those things that were basically only media players ever were.

And yes, eGo would be a great name for it too! Of course, then they'd need to partner with iD to put mobile Doom on it...

Sosumi

[200_success]

Apple really, really wanted to use Sosumi as the ringtone on this phone.