iPhone Already Needs a New Name...

... or a good payoff.

The problem can be summed up by saying there is a company in Canada called Comwave. It has been using the name iPhone in the US and Canada for a while now, about two years.

Now, if you go to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (kind of like military intelligence but more evil) and so a search under Trade-Marks for iPhone, you will see three documents, an opposition, a search and an abandonment by Cisco.

The US PTO also lists two of note, one by Ocean Telecom Services and the other by Teledex LLC. It is pretty certain that the Ocean application is from Apple, but the Teledex one beat it by a year.

What it comes down to is Apple is jumping in to an obvious name with a good number of companies already using it. Some have trademarked it, others have tried to trademark it and failed, especially in Canada. Let's leave it at: there are many claims to the name, most predate Apple by a lot.

We sense a good blackmail opportunity a strong negotiating position for Comwave. Luckily Apple has deep pockets.

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