This past Sunday, news came out that networking equipment maker Cisco Systems would be introducing a new Linksys brand VoIP phone named the iPhone. Linksys is a unit of Cisco Systems. However, Apple Computer owns the domain name iPhone.org and also may have had plans to introduce their own VoIP device in January 2007. And this is where the dispute lies.
Apple Computer has used the "i" prefix in front of their brand products for several years. Apple has also trademarked their brand names with the "i" prefix in front of the brand name such as "iPod" and "iBook". There may be a lengthy court battle between Cisco and Apple if Apple ever does introduce their own branded phone with the "i" prefix.
According to ABC News:
A quick survey of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) web site shows that there are in fact 9 instances of "iPhone" as a registered trademark. It also shows that Cisco has actually owned the iPhone brand since 2000, when it purchased Infogear, another internet appliance company. According to the USPTO's web site, Infogear was originally granted the iPhone trademark in 1997.
To futher complicate the whole matter, according to ABC News:
Linksys told PC Magazine that the iPhone moniker isn't even new, and that the company has had an "iPhone family"—the CIT 200 and CIT 300—of wireless IP phones since October of 2005.
Despite finding the occasional reference to the CIT 200 or 300 as being an "iPhone" on a few third-party online vendor sites, PC Magazine could not find any other instances of the word in relation to a Linksys phone. Furthermore, Linksys's own site reveals no evidence of an iPhone descriptor being employed until yesterday's release of the CIT 400 and WIP 320.
While this doesn't take away from Cisco's legitimate rights to trademarked term, it does mean that if Apple challenges the company for its use in the future, it might not be such a clear-cut case.
And therein lies the iPhone dilemma. For years, analysts, bloggers, and tech news sites have all affixed the iPhone appellation to a product that may or may not even exist. In terms of brand recognition—and as successful as its iCampaign has been thus far—Apple could theoretically argue that "i" anything automatically makes people think of the company.
And regarding the domain name iPhone.org, Apple registered the domain name in 1999 which redirects users to the Apple corporate homepage. Then in 2002, Apple began to trademark the "iPhone" name is Singapore, the U.K., Australia, Canada, and most recently, New Zealand. But, trademarks are on a country by country basis. Indeed, the ABC News article notes that just because a trademark is issued in one country does not necessarily mean that the trademarked name can be used in the U.S. to sell a product with the same name.
Apple Computer may have a tough time in making the "i" prefix (in front of product names) their own exclusive domain. Indeedd:
An executive with brand consultant Interbrand, however, said that so-called "iExclusivity" was a thing of the past. "Apple has known for a long time that it wouldn't have exclusivity with the 'i' trademark," said Julius Roberge, managing director of Verbal Identity for Interbrand. "There have been "i" trademarks for decades. iVideo, for instance, is owned by an industrial video company and was filed back in 1968."
They've [Apple] used 'i' very well to capture the spirit of this era we've just come through—the late 90s and early 2000s," Roberge said. "From a trademark perspective, the name is diluted and played out."
There may be more news concerning this issue in the future.
Source [ABC News]
