Apple licensing ‘iOS’ name from Cisco, acquiring ‘FaceTime’ mark outright

Hey, look at that — Apple’s trademark attorneys actually called the senior owner of a trademark before Steve announced a product name and got everyone into a tizzy. See, Cisco routers and switches just happen to run an operating system called IOS, and that means Apple had to get permission to rename iPhone OS 4 iOS 4. Of course, the previous trademark tussle between Apple and Cisco over the iPhone mark probably means that all these guys are just good buddies now, so we’re just waiting for Mac OS X 10.7 “Lynxis” to hit.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, a company called “FaceTime Communications” actually sold its “FaceTime” mark to Apple and is completely changing its name in the coming months. Might we suggest “Apple TV Remote” as an intriguing possibility?