Cisco and Apple settle iPhone trademark lawsuit

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 22 February 2007 07:50

IT Industry - Market

In a surprising development, Apple and Cisco have agreed to share the disputed iPhone trademark, apparently without any restrictions.

In a statement announcing resolution of the dispute they said: "Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the 'iPhone' trademark on their products throughout the world. Both companies acknowledge the trademark ownership rights that have been granted, and each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark."

If there were restrictions limiting the type of products on which the trademark could be used, the two weren't saying. They even promised to "explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications."

The day after the launch of Apple's iPhone in January, Cisco filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using the iPhone trademark.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. Infogear filed for the trademark in March 1996.

Cisco's Linksys division had, according to Cisco been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early 2006.