An article on Canoe Network helps flesh out the conflict between Cisco and Apple over the dispute between the iPhone name and the suit Cisco has filed against Apple claiming it violated one of its trademarks.

In the suit, filed Wednesday, Cisco asked a judge to forbid Apple from using the name "iPhone", which Cisco has held as a trademark since 2000.

According to the article, Apple initially inquired after Cisco to acquire or license the rights to the iPhone name. Upon refusal of these names, Cisco claims that Apple embardked on a campaign of "confusion, mistake and deception" and created a shell company called Ocean Telecom Services LLC to sidestep these challenges.

In an application submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trade office during March of 2006, Ocean Telecom described itself as a foreign company offering services in Trinidad and Tobago.

As of Thursday, an Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Ocean Telecom,

In spite of criticism form both sides, Apple recently calling Cisco's lawsuit as "silly", Cisco spokesman John Noh claimed that Cisco was still willing to negotiate with Apple with regard to the name. Noh claimed that Cisco executives would like to let Apple use the term "iPhone" on the condition that the companies' phones be able to communicate with each other.

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