Cisco confers Apple with an extra week for iPhone response

Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to give Apple Inc. another chance to respond to its trademark infringement lawsuit that prohibits Apple from using the name "iPhone" on its eagerly awaited cell phone-iPod-Internet communications device.

Cisco, which makes routers and switches to link networks and power the Internet, said late Thursday that it has agreed to give computer maker nearly another week to respond to its lawsuit accusing Apple of violating Cisco's iPhone trademark.

As per requested by Apple Inc., Cisco has extended the deadline until Feb. 21. "Cisco is fully committed to using the extra time to reach a mutually beneficial resolution," the world's largest networking equipment maker, Cisco said in a brief statement released Thursday.

The latest extension is the second since the San Jose, California-based Cisco sued the manufacturer of desktop and laptop computers. In their lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court last month, Cisco had accused the iPod/Mac maker of copying and using its registered iPhone trademark intentionally.

Both the companies early this month had agreed to solve the legal battle over the iPhone trademark out of the court, and also agreed to extend the deadline until Thursday night. Now, Cupertino, California-based Apple has until Wednesday to respond to the lawsuit. During the extended time the companies want to reach a settlement.

The lawsuit came merely a day after Apple unveiled its much-hyped cellular phone-music player, called the iPhone, at the Macworld conference and Expo in San Francisco on January 10.

According to Cisco, it succeeded to get possession of the iPhone trademark for itself after acquiring Infogear Technology Corp. in a stock deal worth US$301 million in 2000. Infogear, which specialized in Internet appliances and previously owned the trademark, originally had filed for the trademark on March 20, 1996, and has sold iPhone products for several years, which are now under Cisco's Linksys division.

Apple’s spokeswoman Natalie Kerris has called the lawsuit "silly," and said that a number of companies are already using the name iPhone for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) products.

The company further contended that it is authorized to use the iPhone name because the phones operate over different networks.

Cisco, whose Linksys division has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year, has said it would permit Apple to use the trademarked name but intends both companies' cellular-phones to be able to communicate with each other.

Shares of Apple lost 18 cents, to $85.03, in morning trading on Friday in the NASDAQ Stock Market. Shares of Cisco fell 4 cents to close at $27.52 on the same in exchange.