This is the real "iPhone", from Linksys, a division of Cisco. Surprised?
Cisco sued Apple the day after Apple announced the iPhone. Are you surprised that the rightful owner of a trademark would sue another firm for trademark infringement?
Shame on Steve Jobs for not respecting the property of another.
This is not the first time that Jobs has bullied his way into owning the intellectual property of another. The original name of the company was stolen from the Apple Corps, who consented to the Apple Computer Company with an $80,000 settlement and so long as they refused to produce records or play a role in the music industry. You might recall that Apple is the recording company of the Beatles.
That agreement, originally from 1981 was revisited in 1991 as Apple introduced speakers on the Mac line of computers, and Apple Computers settled for $26 million. More recently, in May 2006, the Apple iPod and Apple iTunes store faced further litigation, but this time the court decided against Apple Corps.
He stole the mouse idea from Xerox and the iPod concept from CreativeArts (who got $150 million from Apple).
This is different. This is the theft of the iPhone trademark which belongs to Cisco.
How will this end?
Apple will lose. Cisco is negotiating from a position of strength. It's not what the value of the trademark is to Cisco (it's only worth a few million to Cisco), but the value of the trademark to Apple which is why Cisco is asking for a $100 million. So, by pre-empting the name this way, Apple is creating value for a brand for Cisco, in an attempt to steal control of the name through marketing. Apple should immediately change the name of the product (should NEVER have introduced it as the iPhone) to something like iPhod, or iWod.
Steve, if you want to use my names here, just email me, and I'll be amenable.
