iPhone Gets Its First Busy Signal

It didn’t take long for Cisco Systems to take a run at Apple, Inc.’s newly unveiled iPhone. Cisco owns a U.S. Trademark Registration for IPHONE in association with “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks”. Cisco has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. alleging trademark infringement among other things. Cisco alleges that up to the night before Apple’s introduction of the iPhone on Tuesday of this week at Macworld Expo, Apple and Cisco were negotiating the terms of an agreement that would have permitted Apple to use the mark.

There appear to be other entities using the iPhone mark for VoIP services, some of which have also filed applications to register the mark in association with such services. Cisco, in its lawsuit, alleges that Apple is applying to register the iPhone mark in the U.S. via a related or alter ego company called Ocean Telecom Services LLC. of 2004 on a proposed use basis.

Apple filed an application to register the mark iPhone in Canada in October of 2004 on a proposed use basis. That application is currently being opposed by Comwave Telecom Inc. Comwave  filed its own application for the mark iPhone in Canada, claiming use of that mark in Canada since June of 2004 for use in association with VoIP services.

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This entry was posted by Neil Melliship on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 10:50 am and is filed under Branding, Protection & Enforcement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “iPhone Gets Its First Busy Signal”

  1. Canadian Trademark Blog » Creating an Effective Brand on February 16th, 2007 8:36 am

    [...] One thing the article didn’t deal with, however, was the role of trademark due diligence in the brand creation process.  Before committing to any new brand, appropriate clearance searches should be conducted.  The best new brand in the world may not be of much use if it’s infringing on the rights of a competitor – at the very least, the cost of launching the brand could go up significantly - Apple’s launch of its iPhone brand is a classic example.  Apple is fortunate enough to have the legal budget to fight those battles.  Many businesses don’t. [...]