Introducing The iPhone... From Cisco

Hah! Gizmodo was being sneaky. On Friday, the gadget site teased that today we would be getting news on the iPhone. And there is news on iPhones…but not from Apple (AAPL).

I speculated on Friday that the news might come from another company with a trademark on the name iPhone, and that’s what happened. The Linksys division of Cisco Systems (CSCO). The company unveiled a line of Voice over IP phones with the name iPhone (pictured below). It’s not news that Cisco is selling products under that name; were they not using the iPhone name, I doubt I’d be writing about it.

The really interesting question here is whether the pending Apple cell phones will be able to use the iPhone name without running into trademark issues.

This morning, Cisco shares were up 18 cents in pre-market trading to $27.74, while Apple was down 2 cents at $87.70.

Comments

[Davis Freeberg:]

That sure is one ugly phone. I bet Steve Jobs is fuming right now.

2006 Dec 18 10:38 AM

[Julian Ivan...:]

"The really interesting question here is whether the pending Apple cell phones will be able to use the iPhone name without running into trademark issues."

Hmm.. Actually, the really interesting question is: what will Apple call their phone? Bugger the trademark issue - I can guarantee you it won't be called the "iPhone."

2006 Dec 18 11:33 AM

[joseph1102_...:]

I like the iPhone multi-touch technology for easy navigation. This will be the next PDA generation.
Get iPhone Converter www.iphoneconverter.co.../

2007 Mar 14 01:27 AM