The iPhone is on the way. But it has zip to do with Apple. Rather, “Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, introduced two VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) handsets adding to five others the company already offers,” says the IDG News Service. The group of phones is now part of a Linksys family of products called iPhone.”

Cisco revealed it’s been holding onto the registered name of “iPhone” since it took over a company called Infogear in 2000, says the story, Infogear had released a previous version of the iPhone in 1997, but sales of the phone were not impressive.

Apple filed a patent application for a combination phone and music player on Nov. 30. Cisco acquired the iPhone trademark through a $301-million (U.S.) stock deal in 2000 to buy Infogear Technology Corp., which specialized in Internet appliances.

Will we soon see a lawsuit blitz launched at Cisco by a highly pissed Steve Jobs who does, after all, seem to believe he automatically has the rights to everything with ‘pods’ or ‘i’ in it?

Apple has been trying to plug its ‘i’-products as a free-standing brand, “but they may have to change tactics,” observes The Ottawa Citizen.

It quotes David Dunne, a marketing expert at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, who has an interesting take on the situation.

“They may have to reintroduce the Apple brand name,” he says, “noting the company could opt to trademark their own future phone as an ‘Apple iPhone’ in order to differentiate it from the Cisco product.”

Meanwhile, the iPhone Cordless Internet Telephony Kit will sell for $80 with other models and bundles going from $1000 to $330.