Linksys launches iPhone: Apple trademark mystery deepens
The iPhone is finally hitting the streets, but it’s not the Apple iPhone that everyone has been expecting. In fact it has nothing at all to do with Apple, and is in no way related to the speculation that Apple is going to launch a cell phone/iPod hybrid.
Not the Apple iPhone
Networking company Linksys (a division of Cisco) has unveiled a family of voice over IP (VoIP) solutions, which it has named iPhone.
According to Linksys, the iPhone family of handheld devices “harnesses the power of the Internet” to enhance voice communications, integrate compelling information services, and deliver access to multimedia.
But the really interesting thing is that Apple has applied for and has been granted a trademark to the iPhone brand in several key markets, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. In the US, Cisco has owned the iPhone trademark since 1999. More recently another iPhone trademark has been awarded to a company called Ocean Telecom Services, which filed to apply for the trade mark on the 26th of September this year.
A search of Google brings up absolutely no information about Ocean Telecom Services (just one post about it registering the iPhone trademark, which I’ve linked to above). This tends to suggest that it’s been set up for the purpose of registering iPhone.
It’s not clear whether Ocean Telecom Services is associated with Apple, or whether it’s a completely separate third party that is hoping to profiteer by owning the iPhone trademark.
It’s highly likely that Linksys will have problems using the name iPhone in markets where Apple has definitely registered the iPhone trademark. And if Ocean Telecom Services is not associated with Apple, Apple will have a tough time using the iPhone name in the US.
While it’s clear that Linksys has launched a family of products called iPhone, and it owns the iPhone trademark in the US, it’s not clear how this will affect Apple’s branding strategy, since it has already made an effort to register the iPhone trademark, and has successfully done so in key markets around the world.
This mystery will only be solved once we have a better idea of what Ocean Telecom Services is, and who it is acting for.
Perhaps Cisco and Apple will come to some kind of mutually agreeble arrangement.
In case you’re interested, the Linksys family of iPhone products includes:
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December 19th, 2006
Doesn’t Cisco own the mark in the US? 1999?