Cisco lodged a trade mark infringement lawsuit with the US federal court in San Francisco last month to prevent Apple from using the iPhone name for its much-hyped music player/phone device.
Cisco’s Linksys division has been shipping a line of voice over IP (VoIP) devices branded iPhones since the early last year. The company has owned the iPhones since it acquired technology firm InfoGear in 2000, which had registered the name.
Apple has argued that it should be allowed to use the iPhone name because each company’s phone uses different networks and different technology – Apple’s is a cellular phone while Cisco’s is VoIP.
Cisco has previously said Apple could use the iPhone name, but had said it wanted both companies phones to be able to communicate with each other. It did not detail how the different technologies should communicate.
Cisco has now agreed to an Apple request to extend the deadline to respond to the lawsuit until February 21. Both companies say they aim to reach a “mutually beneficial” resolution outside of court.
Apple formally announced its iPhone product last month. It is due to ship in the US through the Cingular cell network in July with a staged roll-out across the globe scheduled over the next year and a half.
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