Though the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was making news in Vegas this week, Apple really stole the show even though their big announcements were happening at MacWorld in San Francisco. The announcement of the Apple iPhone has been much expected for a long time now, and Steve Jobs and the team have created quite a buzz with the device.
However, one area that has received some press but not as much is related to Apples ability to use the actual name ‘iPhone‘. For many years Cisco has owned the trademark for iPhone, via its Linksys consumer division, which in turn picked up the trademark when it aquired Infogear in 2000. Cisco use’s this trademark in it’s Linksys iPhone VoIP phone.
Though Apple and Cisco were in discussions regarding the use of this trademark, apparently Apple made their announcement at MacWorld before an agreement was completed. This has led Cisco to sue Apple.
Now, the interesting thing is why is Cisco so concerned about the use of this trademark? Though it is obvious that companies want to protect their trademarks, there is more to this than meets the eye. At first glance though the Apple iPhone and Cisco iPhone allow a user to make phone calls, they are on seperate networks (wireless vs VoIP) and it may not seem obvious why there is a major concern. However in reality, Cisco’s concern probably really stems from the future convergence, and the fact that VoIP over wireless is expected to get hotter in the future.
So, the next big question is, when will Cisco be making a Linksys phone for the wireless networks?
Rob
[tags]Cisco, Apple, iPhone, VoIP[/tags]
