• Financial Times, Thursday, January 11, 2007 11 AM

After making a big splash at its own Macworld conference in San Francisco (possibly overshadowing the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) with the new iPhone, which resulted in a big day for Apple on Wall Street, the iPod maker was dealt a harsh dose of reality this morning. Cisco Systems, which owns the rights to the "iPhone" name, said it would sue Apple for trademark infringement.

Cisco actually acquired the right to use the name in 2000, a year before the iPod went to market. "Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco. Apple apparently jumped the gun before an agreement to use the name was reached, wanting to make a big media splash at their annual conference in San Francisco. Cisco said it expected to reach a final agreement about the use of the name.

"Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly," an Apple spokesman said. "There are already several companies using the name iPhone for VoIP. We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us we're confident we will prevail." Last month, the wireless networking manufacturer began shipping its own iPhone cordless handsets.

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