Seattle Trademark Lawyer

Cisco Systems, Inc., may have abandoned its IPHONE trademark. The affidavit of use that Cisco filed last year to maintain its registration reportedly was supported by a photo of the packaging of a CIT200-branded phone that only had the IPHONE mark attached to it with a sticker. As ZDNet’s Ed Burnette explained in his Dev Connection blog:

“A search of product reviews of the CIT200 shows no mention of the word iPhone. The first mention appeared in December 2006 when Cisco unveiled a series of new products bearing the iPhone name. It was not until then that the CIT200 was rebranded under the iPhone moniker.”

If Cisco really failed to use IPHONE, it would lose its rights in the mark and not be able to support at least some of its claims against Apple Inc. Indeed, if Cisco’s affidavit of use contained a false statement of fact, its registration could (and should) be cancelled.

The next company with priority for IPHONE? According to Mr. Burnette, it is Ocean Telecom Services LLC, which he says is “widely regarded as a front company for Apple.”

If this surprising development is true, it’s no wonder Apple didn’t agree to license the mark from Cisco last week as was widely expected.