Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Thursday 11 January 2007, 2:01 PM
Apple's iPhone trademark in with a chance - if they want it
There's a principle in US law that if you don't defend your trademark, you lose it. This has led to a lot of misery over the years - Peanuts author Charles Shulz was reportedly very unhappy about the way his characters had to be vigorously defended by lawyers against the likes of fans who paint Snoopy on the outside of their houses - but nonetheless, that's the way it works.
So what to make of the way iPhone's been used by non-Cisco companies for hotel phone and even Wireless VoIP systems? The latter especially is much closer to the Cisco product than the Apple iPhone, and if it ever gets to court it'll be interesting to hear Cisco's explanation of why that didn't matter but the Apple one does.
I still don't think it'll get that far. Too embarrasing for one or both sides: there'll be a CEO-level meeting later this week over pizza and everyone will be friends again. After all, none of this matters in the slightest.
(Alternatively, my garrulous gadgteer pal DJ - who pointed out the above links - has a theory that Apple isn't that sold on iPhone anyway and could be moving to a new non-I based nomenclature. The iTV has been renamed the Apple TV (or even the [AppleLogo] TV) - so we could see The Product Formerly Known As iPhone renamed as Apple Phone, Apple Cell or similar fruity title. Yeah, I could go for that).
PreviousComments on this post
Phew I was expecting a pun at the end there. They could step away from the i-brand, infact they recently become Apple Inc and not Apple Computer Inc, perhaps it could be a new beginning, with some new ideas up their sleaves.
"I have to go my Core Phone is ringing"
Sorry :)
Just a quick thought here regarding the "i-brand"... when you hear the word iPhone you associate it straight away with Apple (at least i do anyway)... It would be interesting to see if Apple do decide to rename it to something else....
In the mean time, here's a good article about the iPhone on silicon...
Yes,
I kind of agree with modafo above but here are a couple of other thoughts.
The iPhone concept has been whispered by Apple fans for well over two years. The release by Linksys in December was Cisco trying to lay claim to their trademark. They knew Apple wanted it - they've been in negotiations since 2001 (?) apparently.
But as all is said and done - whatever the name is eventually - most will still refer to it as an iPhone. Like the iTV announcement - now called Apple TV by Apple - but Steve still managed to refer to it as iTV throughout his presentation.
