Back in January, after news of a legal action by Cisco over the iPhone name attempted to steal some of the thunder of what has been the product launch of the Year so far, we described the legal threat as largely ‘Hollow,’ and so it has proved to be.
The two companies this week said they have resolved their dispute over the ‘iPhone’ name with both of them free to use the ‘iPhone’ trademark globally.
Cisco and Apple said they will explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications and that other terms of the agreement are confidential.
Well as for enterprise, that’s all fine and good, Apple’s not got anything really to offer Cisco there, and in security for consumers it really only has the Fairplay DRM system, which might be opened up for interoperability. But since Apple has continually insisted that such a decision while always up for review, is largely unappealing right now, that means they appear to be co-operating on nothing at all and that the words are just gloss.
We said at the iPhone launch that our take on it was fairly straightforward. A deadline for launch was looming and Cisco chanced its arm. It either asked for a lot of money, or it asked for the opportunity to have access to Fairplay. Whatever it asked for, it was a function of the looming deadline. Apple clearly consulted lawyers and thought that the risk of doing the deal outweighed the risk of not doing the deal, and just went ahead and launched.
We said that the threat was hollow, and that it would be resolved before the June iPhone shipment deadline, in order to keep Cingular happy, and so it has proved.