Apple's win over Cisco's iPhone

BBC Uncut

Last month Steve Jobs announced the forthcoming release of Apple's entry into the cellular phone market via the iPhone, but Cisco had registered the brand name in 2000 for its Linksys subsidiary.

So, Cisco had sued Apple on a trademark violation, but now the two firms have mutually agreed to use the term iPhone on their products worldwide. So, we are going to have two iPhones!! We still do not have the details on how they worked the deal out yet, but under the deal they will also work together on security, consumer and business communication.

This is a win for Apple, isin't it? It also stresses the value they associate with their brand name, and that they are not willing to settle for anything other than 'iPhone'. I still think Apple may go a step forward and prevent Cisco now from using the iPhone brand in the future sometime, as this starts leading to customer confusion. Just imagine, there would be two somewhat similar products called iPhone floating in the market. Consumers who want to buy one may get shown the other at the store and may stick with it. Search results for 'iPhone' would not return only Apple's product. Eventually, this might turn to be a disadvantage for Apple and so I believe since they possess an image for the i* products, they would even try to pay Cisco out of the way soon. Cisco shouldn't worry too much about that.