Apple responds to Iphone suit
Cisco Systems is suing Apple to prevent it from using the name iPhone for the new smartphone Apple introduced Tuesday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
Cisco filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court for Northern California seeking an injunction against Apple using the name.
The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco. Linksys picked up the iPhone name when it bought a company called Infogear Technology Corp. in 2000. Cisco’s iPhones are telephone handsets designed for use on a VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) network.
The iPhone has proved to be the most talked-about product at this year’s Expo, and its positive reception has sent Apple’s stock surging over the past two days. The company’s stock closed at $97 Wednesday, up nearly 5 percent for the day.