Apple being sued for using the name iPhone

Seenoreen and Elusivedarkness just described the situation to you. The long and short of this case is that, in the USA, one just does not use an already trademark name without approval from the entity to which the name is registered or belongs.

The company Linksys (which makes routers and other home tech products) owns the iPhone trademark, and Cisco acquired the trademark when it bought Linksys. Apple and Cisco were in discussions about Apple acquiring the iPHone tag, but apparently talks broke down. I'm sure they'll come to some resolution ($$$).

I already expected this right after the announcement of iPhone. As far as I know, Cisco introduced their own VOIP phone first with the name iPhone. Then a few days ago, Apple announced their mobile phone with the same name. Being two big companies, I already expected that Cisco will sue them. I guess they need to settle it before it gets to court.

Yeah, I read about this. Cisco bought some Internet company back during the tech boom that owned the trademark for iPhone. Recently, Cisco decided to use it to market their new VOIP phone. Apple was aware that Cisco had the trademark and contacted their lawyers about the issue. Apparently, Apple never bothered to actually settle before launching iPhone. We'll see what happens.