Steve Jobs Worked on “Giancarlo” for Acquiring iPhone Trademark from Cisco! Inside Apple
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January 28, 2012 • 
In his new upcoming book “Apple Inside” Adam Lashinsky noted a few interesting tidbits about Apple’s co-founder RIP Steve Jobs. Here’s how Steve Jobs succeeded to acquire iPhone trademark from Cisco? According to CultofMac, iPhone was originally the trade mark owned by Cisco, a large enterprise computing company, well before the emergence of Apple at Tech horizons. So, it is an interesting story how Apple became able to use this trade mark.
Lashinsky talked with Charles Giancarlo, former Cisco executive at that time, to know how Steve Jobs actually did immense efforts for a acquiring iPhone trademark from Cisco.
He tells the whole story in the words of Giancarlo; firstly Steve Jobs made a telephonic call to Giancarlo and requested him that Apple is interested in using iPhone trademark for its upcoming mobile device.
Giancarlo recalled that Steve Jobs didn’t made any offer to him for this purpose at that particular time. He revealed the whole interesting story by saying;
“He didn’t offer us anything for it. It was just like a promise he’d be our best friend. And we said, ‘No, we’re planning on using it.’ “Shortly after that, Apple’s legal department called to say they thought Cisco had “abandoned the brand,” meaning that in Apple’s legal opinion Cisco hadn’t adequately defended its intellectual property rights by promoting the name. To Apple’s way of thinking this meant the name iPhone was available for Apple’s use. Giancarlo, who subsequently joined the prominent Silicon Valley private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, said Cisco threatened litigation before the launch. Then, the day after Apple announced its iPhone, Cisco filed suit.
Then Steve Jobs began to play its own classic tactics to acquire the iPhone trade mark and he tried to press “Giancarlo’s” buttons in the nicest possible way;
The negotiation displayed some classic Steve Jobs negotiating tactics. Giancarlo said Jobs called him at home at dinnertime on Valentine’s Day, as the two sides were haggling. Jobs talked for a while, Giancarlo related. “And then he said to me, ‘Can you get email at home?’ ” Giancarlo was taken aback. This was 2007, after all, when broadband Internet was ubiquitous in homes in the US, let alone that of a Silicon Valley executive who had worked for years on advanced Internet technology. “And he’s asking me if I’m able to get email at home. You know he’s just trying to press my buttons-in the nicest possible way.” Cisco gave up the fight shortly after that. The two sides reached a vague agreement to cooperate on areas of mutual interest.
Lashinsky further discloses in the “Inside Apple” that “the rights to use the iOS trademark were negotiated prior to Apple going live with the name; however, it’s said that Jobs got his way throughout the proceedings”.
