Friday, February 23, 2007

iPhone Deal Unprecedented?

By now we've all heard about Apple and Cisco agreeing to "share" the iPhone trademark. I'm not at all surprised that a deal was reached, even if it did take much longer than expected. What I'm wondering is this: has there ever been another case of a company (Cisco) agreeing to let another company (Apple) use its trademark to identify a product so similar to its own? I'm an unabashed Apple lover and Steve Jobs fan, but I'm shocked that he has this much clout or could pull this off. I mean, he basically got Chambers et al. to pseudo-abandon the trademark, which Cisco clearly owned. Anyone know of any similar cases where this sort of agreement has been reached?

2 comments:

Michael Vasquez said...

Wouldn't you think that Apple paid an arm and a leg for this. Don't be confused into thinking that Cisco didn't look after their best intrest in this deal.

Bryan said...

Michael, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple had payed some dough to make this thing happen. However, I have heard nothing that suggests this happened. My understanding is that financial agreements will be acknowledged, even if they are accompanied by the "...but financial terms were not disclosed" appendage.