The dust had barely settled on Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' iPhone unveiling when Cisco hit back, saying it has owned the trademark since 2000, when it bought Infogear Technology, which had registered the name. Cisco says Infogear had previously used the name for several years.
Cisco's Linksys arm has used the trademark since early 2006 and launched its own internet accessible mobile phone in December 2006 and called it the iPhone.
Mark Chandler, Cisco's senior vice-president and general counsel, said: "Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name. There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but it should not be using our trademark without our permission."
Apple has responded by branding the legal action as "silly". A spokesman for the company said: "There are already several companies using the iPhone name for VoIP [voice over IP] products. We're the first company ever to use iPhone for a cell phone. If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're confident we'll prevail."
The iPhone was officially unveiled at the Apple annual Macworld conference in San Francisco. The widescreen device has full iTunes integration and can also sync data with a desktop, including music and videos from iTunes, contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks and email accounts.
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