The New IPhone

Apple IPhone in Hand

The maker of the popular iPod portable music player has made a cellphone that plays music and has a touch screen instead of the multiple buttons used on other mobile devices.

The new phone, to be called iPhone, will run on Apple's operating system, Apple CEO and chairman Steve Jobs said Tuesday as he unveiled the phone in a speech that opened MacWorld, Apple's annual conference and product show in San Francisco.

Within 24 hours of the release of the Apple iPhone announcement by Steve Jobs at Macworld earlier this week, Cisco filed a law suit against Apple for the use of the iPhone name, despite talks between the two companies that had apparently fell through. Cisco had owned the iPhone trademark for a number of years, and Jobs’ announcement with the name was what many are calling a bold move.

Many speculations have been floating around about what the result of the lawsuit will be, one of which is that both companies will be able to use the somewhat generic term “iPhone” in conjunction with their respective products, branding one the “Apple iPhone”, and the other the “Cisco iPhone” or “Linksys iPhone”.

A dual ownership would be a good potential outcome for Apple according to Bruce Sunstein, co-founder of the Boston law firm Bromberg & Sunstein via News.com. “Cisco holds a clear advantage in the legal dispute as the trademark holder of record and having already released products using the iPhone name” said Sunstein. “The one who has a registration is in a better position than the one who does not. Apple’s only choice is to argue that its ‘iFamily’ of trademarks such as iPod, iTunes and iMac create confusion in a customer’s mind as to who makes the iPhone”.

Who will win the law suit? Apple or Cisco? We'll just have to wait and see.