iPhone hits second trademark snag

Another awkward claim has arisen to mar the astonishingly successful hype of the iPhone, Apple's technological catch-up that has managed to get the kind of news coverage you would expect for World War Three.

First there was the small snag that Cisco has already trademaked the name iPhone. Now, according to Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, it seems the Toronto telecoms firm Comwave owns the name north of the border.

The company has been selling VoIP services since 2004, and even sells a handset called the iPhone Mobile, chief executive Yuval Barzakay said he saw no reason to change his business because of the Apple launch.

He told the Globe And Mail: “There's no confirmed reports that Apple will launch iPhone in Canada.”

Cisco is suing Apple for trademark infringement, after negotiating "for years " with the company over the issue. Cisco has owned the name in the US since 2000 but it has not challenged Comwave's use if it.

It is not the first time Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has been cavalier in his use of trademarks. His old sidekick Steve Wozniak, who build the first Apple computer, recalls in his autobiography I Woz, how Jobs came up with the firm's name when driving back from a commune called the "Apple Orchard".

Wozniac recalls he immediately asked Jobs: "What about [the Beatles' company] Apple Records?"

But they could not think of a better name, and Apple Computers it became – a prelude to years of litigation with the Beatles.

See here for news of first hands-on report.