How Steve Jobs Took the iPhone Trademark From Cisco

Adam Lashinsky explains how Steve Jobs walked all over Cisco to get the iPhone trademark in his new book, Inside Apple.

CultofMac notes that Cisco, a large enterprise computing company, not only owned the iPhone trademark for years before Apple. It also owned the IOS trademark before Apple began using it. So how was Apple able to use these marks?

Lashinsky tells the story of how Steve Jobs had his way with Charles Giancarlo, a Cisco executive at the time:
Giancarlo fielded a call directly from Steve Jobs. "Steve called in and said that he wanted it," Giancarlo recalled. "He didn't offer us anything for it. It was just like a promise he'd be our best friend. And we said, 'No, we're planning on using it.' " Shortly after that, Apple's legal department called to say they thought Cisco had "abandoned the brand," meaning that in Apple's legal opinion Cisco hadn't adequately defended its intellectual property rights by promoting the name. To Apple's way of thinking this meant the name iPhone was available for Apple's use. Giancarlo, who subsequently joined the prominent Silicon Valley private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, said Cisco threatened litigation before the launch. Then, the day after Apple announced its iPhone, Cisco filed suit.

The negotiation displayed some classic Steve Jobs negotiating tactics. Giancarlo said Jobs called him at home at dinnertime on Valentine's Day, as the two sides were haggling. Jobs talked for a while, Giancarlo related. "And then he said to me, 'Can you get email at home?' " Giancarlo was taken aback. This was 2007, after all, when broadband Internet was ubiquitous in homes in the US, let alone that of a Silicon Valley executive who had worked for years on advanced Internet technology. "And he's asking me if I'm able to get email at home. You know he's just trying to press my buttons-in the nicest possible way." Cisco gave up the fight shortly after that. The two sides reached a vague agreement to cooperate on areas of mutual interest.

According to the book, rights to use the iOS trademark were negotiated prior to Apple going live with the name; however, it's said that Jobs got his way throughout the proceedings.