Apple Inc (AAPL)

[fmikehugo]

12:39 AAPL Apple Computer: iPhone runs into trademark problems - Inquirer.net (90.52 -0.75) -Update-

According to Inquirer.net, AAPL might have some serious problems with the iPhone. The problem can be summed up by saying there is a company in Canada called Comwave. It has been using the name iPhone in the US and Canada for a while now, about two years. Now, if you go to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and so a search under Trade-Marks for iPhone, you will see three documents, an opposition, a search and an abandonment by CSCO.

The US PTO also lists two of note, one by Ocean Telecom Services and the other by Teledex LLC. It is pretty certain that the Ocean application is from AAPL, but the Teledex one beat it by a year. What it comes down to is AAPL is jumping in to an obvious name with a good number of companies already using it.

Let's leave it at: there are many claims to the name, most predate AAPL by a lot. The real question though is what effect Comwave will have on all of this.