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Who can use the iPhone name?

Apple recently announced the iPhone at the MacWorld event in San Francisco, but they may have to change its name because of a company called Cisco.

Cisco has owned the trademark since 2000 since it bought Infogear Technology who registered the name.  Cisco who supplies networks are suing Apple for trademark infringement for using the iPhone name.  Cisco’s linksys arm has employed the trademark since early 2006, and in December they brought out their VoIP phone which they called the iPhone.  Apple’s argument is that several companies are already using the name iPhone for VoIP products.  Apple is the first company to use the name iPhone for a mobile phone and are confident they will prevail over Cisco.

But this confidence seems to be lacking on the actual product itself. Apples iPod has ‘iPod’ engraved on the back, along with the iMac and the latest Apple TV, yet the new iPhone is without its name. Apple’s products proudly display their names somewhere on them, which is unusual when the showpiece for this years Macworld is without its engraving. Apple’s confident stance on the legal suit may be only for show, as from the looks of the new iPhone, they were unsure from the beginning where they stood on the matter in hand. This mobile has been created in knowledge of the fact that its ‘birth name’may only be short lived.

Cisco holds the US and European trademarks, but there could be a legal loophole which could strip Cisco of its European rights.  The law states that in Europe a person can lodge a revocation application against a trademark registration if the trademark has not been used for the past five years.  So far there has been no evidence of the iPhone trademark being used in Europe in the five years previous to the revocation application.  This leaves Cisco’s ownership of the trademark in Europe under threat.  As Apple has the oldest application for the trademark they would be highly likely to then own the trademark in Europe.

There has been a similar loophole found for the US trademark too!  The law states that to keep a trademark a company must file a declaration of use to the US patents and trademarks office by the 6th anniversary of the registration of the mark.  Although Cisco did this, the photographic evidence they produced was an existing Cisco product with a sticker on the outside of the package saying iPhone.

Keep checking our industry news page for updates on whose winning the iPhone battle.