Why Battle over the iPhone Name?

Do you like Apple's iPhone? I like it too, although I've always said and I'll keep saying it - I am not crazy about cell phones at all. I can understand that, sometimes, a name is worth more than the product behind it; just think about the names available for some Internet domains or notorious registered trademarks such as Nike, Pepsi and, why not, Apple. On the other hand, having an inspired name and a bad product behind it won't lead anywhere, and the best examples here can be chosen when browsing the Internet and checking random websites, but let's leave all these behind and return to our iPhone...

The iPhone is a Cisco trademark since 2000. Great, but what did they do with that name? They got a product called iPhone, but how many people heard about it so far? If Apple wouldn't have announced their iPhone, probably Cisco's product launch would have been only "yet another VoIP phone". To me, it sounds really amusing to claim that Apple's phone name "could confuse shoppers looking to buy Cisco's iPhone" - after all, they are not even cell phones both, so it's like a buyer looking for a sports car ends up with a pickup van because of "name confusion"!

Let's get serious now - no matter how much I like Apple's iPhone, Cisco's have got a point, and not because their clients looking for a VoIP phone may end up with a cell phone from Apple instead, but simply because they own that name. According to David Radack, chairman of the intellectual property department at Pittsburgh-based Ecker Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC, "It'd be like if I sold spark plugs, then someone else said I'm going to sell carburetors with the same name. Yeah, they're different products -- but they're both sold in auto parts stores, and someone who saw the brand name on a spark plug could reasonably think it was made by the same company."

All good, but I guess he misses one point: people looking for an iPhone, no matter whose, know what they are looking for, and it's not about the name of the product here, since spark plugs and carburetors are not packed to emphasize the producer's name, as it happens with cell phones, computer parts and consumer electronics.

Let's look at the prices, for an instance - Cisco's product is worth 12$, and requires additional kits that go between 70 and 200$, while Apple's iPhone will be available for 499 and 599$, depending on the model. How could you go wrong with that? Well, it seems this is not about the present, but about the future, since one day, Apple and Cisco may have rather similar products called "iPhone", but until then, we should see what happens now...

At last, I should tell you a really interesting thing - Cisco doesn't seem to want money from Apple, and although the lawsuit is on, they are still willing to negotiate. According to Cisco's spokesman, John Noh, they are ready to allow Apple to use the "iPhone" name on the condition that both phones could communicate with each other, but he had no technical details about this.

I always like peaceful solutions to any conflict, and I think that until this summer's release of the new iPhone to the public, things should work out nicely between Cisco and Apple. I am all eyes and years on this problem, and I'll keep you informed. Stay tuned!