Tech Shout!

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems and Apple Inc. reached an agreement, whereby both the companies are permitted to use the ‘iPhone’ name. In January, Cisco filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco against Apple for having indulged in trademark infringement of the new iPhone multimedia phone, and since then the two companies have had quite a spat over the same.

In a joint statement issued, they said both companies are free to use the “iPhone” trademark on their products throughout the world, and each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark.

Furthermore, Cisco and Apple will explore opportunities to work together in the areas of security, and consumer and institutional communications.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after acquiring a company called Infogear, which had previously owned the trademark and had sold devices called iPhones for several years.

Linksys, a division of Cisco, had been selling wireless products with the iPhone name since early last year, with new products added to the line in December.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Representatives for Apple and Cisco said other terms of the deal would remain confidential. It is not known if Apple made a cash payment to Cisco, but intellectual property lawyers say some sort of payment is typical in these cases. It is also unclear whether Cisco had sold Apple the name iPhone outright and had then secured permission to use it itself.