Amaya Toman For many years, we have associated the name "iPhone" with a specific smartphone from Apple. But this name originally belonged to a completely different device. In the article about how Apple acquired the iPhone domain, we mentioned the battle over the name "iPhone" with Cisco - let's look at this episode in a little more detail.
The end before the beginning
When the Cupertino company announced its plans to release a smartphone called the iPhone, many insiders held their breath. Linksys' parent company, Cisco Systems, was the owner of the iPhone trademark despite iProducts such as the iMac, iBook, iPod and iTunes being associated with Apple to the public. The death of Apple's iPhone was thus predicted before it was even released.
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Ondrej Holzman A new iPhone from Cisco?
The release of Cisco's iPhone came as a huge surprise to everyone—well, it was a surprise until it was revealed that it was a Cisco device. Cisco's iPhone was a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) device whose high-end version with marked WIP320, it had Wi-Fi compatibility and included Skype. A few days before the announcement, Brian Lam, editor of Gizmodo magazine, wrote that the iPhone would be announced on Monday. "I vouch for it," he stated in his article at the time. "Nobody expected it at all. And I've already said too much." Everyone expected a device called the iPhone to be released by Apple, while many laymen and experts alike knew that the Apple smartphone should see the light of day in 2007, while the aforementioned announcement took place in December 2006.
Long history
But the new devices from Cisco production were not the real first iPhones. The story of this name goes back to 1998, when the company InfoGear presented its devices with this name at the then CES fair. Even then, InfoGear devices boasted simple touch technology combined with a handful of basic applications. Despite good reviews, InfoGear's iPhones didn't sell more than 100 units. InfoGear was eventually bought by Cisco in 2000 – along with the iPhone trademark.
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Michal Ždanský After the world learned about Cisco's iPhone, it almost looked like Apple would have to find an entirely new name for its new smartphone. "If Apple really is developing a combination mobile phone and music player, perhaps its fans should give up certain expectations and accept that the device probably won't be called the iPhone. According to the patent office, Cisco is the holder of the registration for the iPhone trademark," wrote MacWorld magazine at the time.
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I clean despite
Despite the fact that Cisco owned the iPhone trademark, Apple in January 2007 launched a smartphone with the name. The lawsuit from Cisco didn't take long - in fact, it came the very next day. In his book Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky described the situation when Steve Jobs contacted Cisco's Charles Giancarlo by phone. “Steve just called and said he wanted an iPhone trademarked. He didn't offer us anything for it," declared Giancarlo. “It was like a promise from a best friend. And we said no, that we plan to use that name. Shortly thereafter, a call came from Apple's legal department saying that they thought Cisco had abandoned the brand—in other words, that Cisco had not additionally defended its iPhone brand intellectual property.”
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Michal Marek The above tactics were not unusual for Jobs, according to insiders. According to Giancarlo, Jobs contacted him on the evening of Valentine's Day and, after talking for a while, asked if Giancarlo had "e-mail at home." In 2007, an IT and telecommunications worker in the United States “He was just trying to push me — in the nicest way possible,” Giancarlo said. Coincidentally, Cisco also owned the trademark "IOS", which in its filing stood for "Internet Operating System". Apple liked her too, and the apple company didn't stop trying to acquire her.
