Cisco, Apple Settle iPhone Dispute
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP February 21, 2007 9:36 p.m.
Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. said they have resolved their dispute involving the iPhone trademark, which had threatened to derail Apple's use of the product name for its much-hyped new iPod-cellphone gadget.
The companies said they reached an agreement that will allow Apple to use the name in exchange for exploring wide-ranging "interoperability'' between the companies' products in the areas of security, consumer and business communications.
Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the trademark on their products globally and acknowledge the trademark ownership rights that have been granted. Each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark.
No other details of the agreement were released.
The showdown between the Silicon Valley tech heavyweights erupted last month when Cisco sued Apple in San Francisco federal court claiming that Apple's use of the iPhone name constituted a "willful and malicious'' violation of a trademark that Cisco has owned since 2000.
Cisco markets a phone with the name through its Linksys division. Its iPhone devices make free long-distance calls over the Internet using a technology called voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP.
The lawsuit was filed a day after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled his own company's iPhone, a multimedia device that operates over the cellular network instead of the Internet.
Apple initially called the lawsuit "silly" and argued that it was entitled to use the name because the phones operate over different networks and would not compete with each other.
Negotiations between the companies broke down just hours before Mr. Jobs' unveiling of the product Jan. 9 in San Francisco.
The sticking point apparently was Cisco's demand that in order to use the iPhone name, Apple would have to open up its famously closed products to communicate with some of Cisco's offerings.
--Associated Press contributed to this story.
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