Cisco owns the iPhone trademark

Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel, on Apple’s infringement of Cisco’s iPhone trademark.

“Cisco owns the iPhone trademark. We have since 2000, when we bought a company called Infogear Technology, which had developed a product that combined web access and telephone. Infogear’s registrations for the mark date to 1996, before iMacs and iPods were even glimmers in Apple’s eye. We shipped and/or supported that iPhone product for years. We have been shipping new, updated iPhone products since last spring, and had a formal launch late last year. Apple knows this; they approached us about the iPhone trademark as far back as 2001, and have approached us several times over the past year.”

Cisco has indicated that Apple approached them several years ago seeking to use the name. The two tech giants have been negotiating ever since to work out a licensing agreement. Apparently, talks broke down just hours before Steve Jobs took to the stage Tuesday at the annual Macworld Conference to introduce the new iPhone.

Here is Apple’s response to the Cisco trademark infringement action:

“It’s silly. We’re the first company to use the iPhone name for a cell phone”

There is a lot of discussion from bloggers about the iPhone trademark today.