Cisco has agreed to give Apple more time to untangle the mess of litigation surrounding the iPhone name. Cisco filed a lawsuit against Apple last month for infringing its iPhone trademark and has now given Apple until 21 February to respond.
In a statement issued last night, the company said: "Cisco has agreed to give Apple an extension until Wednesday, 21 February. "Cisco is fully committed to using the extra time to reach a mutually beneficial resolution."
It's the second extension Cisco has given, after the original deadline was extended on 31 January.
Cisco's Linksys brand had been selling products with iPhone stickers on since 2006, when it acquired the trademark by default in 2000 after purchasing Infogear. Infogear had been shipping internet screenphones named iPhone since 1997.
Agreement
"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name", said Mark Chandler at Cisco, as the lawsuit was being filed.
"There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."
When Apple announced its own iPhone product at Macworld in January, Cisco stated that it wished to stop Apple "infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco's registered iPhone trademark".
Apple has confirmed that the deadline has been further extended, and added that discussions were ongoing in an effort to agree on matters including trademark rights and interoperability.
