- Negotiate with Cisco over the rights to the iPhone name.
- Don’t finish the negotiations after your Monday meeting.
- Announce your iPhone product on Tuesday morning despite not finishing negotiations.
- Get tons of press coverage and hope that sways in your favor.
(Companies use the press in court cases all the time. The press likes controversy, and court cases are full of it).
“We think Cisco’s trademark suit is silly…We believe (their) trademark registration is tenuous at best,” said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman. via News.com
and Cisco says . . .
“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission.”
What do I think?
My guess is that Apple was the main force behind all the leaked iPhone information over the past years. I’m no lawyer, but it seems that if Apple can prove that the general public has seen “iPhone” as an Apple name all along, it’s going to make it tougher for Cisco to prove it’s case, and this is just one example. Public perception is very powerful, and I have personally seen the magic of PR help sway it in a direction that makes companies revert on their decisions. And I have seen them revert on huge decisions.
UPDATE
iphone Apple via Google (22,000,100 results)
iphone Cisco via Google (1,850,000 results)
3 comments ↓
If the court looked at on the press prior to decide, they’d rule in Apple’s favor. Check out this article.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2066736,00.asp
I think the name is lame anyway. Apple ought to leave it be and come up with something more original. Probably too late.
I hope Jobs gets sued. Its been coming his way for a while. His completely micro-managed system of products is getting too cultish and he needs a wake-up call back to reality. Of course, as you pointed out in your other post he won’t lose anything in the media circles since he’s pretty much “pre-bought” his coverage by joining more members to the cult.
Plus, they tend to bully the smaller companies, or rather ignore them altogether. This time that approach won’t work.
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