Apple and Cisco trying to make bizarre iPhone deal work

In February the battle between Cisco and Apple over the iPhone name came to a bizarre and amicable resolution. The two companies settled the trademark dispute by agreeing to work together. Now the companies are trying to make the bizarre deal work, and are in talks looking at how their disparate products might work together.

Apple plans to launch the iPhone mobile in June; Cisco launched a line of iPhone VoIP phones in mid December of last year.

Back in February Cisco agreed that Apple would be able to use the iPhone trademark in exchange for the two companies working together to explore interoperability between the company’s products in the areas of security, consumer and business communications.

Now, according to Cisco Chief Development Office Charlie Giancarlo talking to Bloomberg, technical teams from both companies are in talks looking at half-a-dozen ways that their products might work together – including how the Apple iPhone might work with Cisco’s corporate phone systems.

“We’re optimistic, but it’s still early,” Giancarlo told Bloomberg.

The background to this story is that Cisco filed a complaint in the San Francisco Federal Count in early January just after the iPhone was announced at the MacWorld Expo. Cisco stated that Apple’s iPhone “will share an identical sight and sound and strong similarity of meaning” with the iPhone trademark that it owns in the US.

Cisco launched a line of iPhone VoIP phones in mid December. It said that it has owned the iPhone trademark in the US since 2000, when it purchased InfoGear Technology. Cisco alleged that Apple’s new phone was ”deceptively and confusingly similar” to its own VoIP phones.

Negotiations over the iPhone trademark broke down just before the iPhone announcement at MacWorld, but as mentioned earlier, the two companies were able come to an agreement in February.

Only Cisco can possibly benefit from this bizarre deal. Apple does not in anyway stand to benefit from having its uber cool iPhone associated with Cisco.

Apple obviously felt that it would either not win a court battle over the iPhone name, or that the expense of a court case and the resulting damage to the iPhone brand would outweigh the benefits of winning.

Whatever the real story, Apple now has to suffer the humiliation of trying to work with a company that offers it no strategic or practical benefit — except the avoidance of a court case. But then again, that is probably reason enough.