Anyone who was talking about Apple’s entry into the phone market was dubbing the device an iPhone. Ever since the first rumor started some hundred years ago, that’s what we’ve been calling it.

Turns out Apple had the same idea. Trouble is they fell into some trouble when they found out Cisco Systems had absorbed the rights to the name in 2000 after acquiring Infogear and their Skype-ready internet phone, the iPhone.

Since Apple released their first iPod 5 years ago, they have been trying to get permission to use the iPhone name but are yet to reach an agreement.

Linksys, who is owned by Cisco, released another iPhone less than a month ago - a cordless version of the first product - but Apple wasn’t deterred.

Apparently things started cooking a few weeks before Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s iPhone to the world last week, when Cisco made it’s offer.

“We sent them final terms on Monday, but we never got approval back,” Cisco spokesman John Noh said. “We’re very open to sharing the trademark. We made that clear. But then they went ahead and used the name without our permission.”

“Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone,” Mark Chandler, Cisco’s general counsel, said about their new iPhone and the lawsuit. “The potential for convergence of the home phone, cellphone, work phone and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand.”

As far as branding goes, Apple are going to fight hard to keep calling it an iPhone. Will we stop calling Apple’s device, which hits the streets in June, an iPhone? How much will it cost Apple to own the name, and not share it with Cisco as I’m sure they don’t want to do?

What would your suggestion be for a new name?

Read [New York Post]