It appears the agreement between Cisco and Apple over the licensing of the iPhone trademark has hit a bump in the road. Cisco has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. Infogear's original filing for the trademark dates to March 20, 1996. Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year. On Dec. 18, Linksys expanded the iPhone family with additional products.

"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name," said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco. "There is no doubt that Apple's new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."

We at Everything iPhone hope Cisco and Apple can come to a quick resolution over this dispute. Have opinions? Discuss in our iPhone forums.