Cisco issued a brief statement Thursday evening, saying it had given Apple more time to respond to its lawsuit over the iPod maker’s alleged infringement of its “iPhone” trademark. Apple was originally given until February 15 to respond.

In a statement released in January, Cisco said it had filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple, “seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark”.

It later emerged that the pair had been in negotiations about the iPhone brand since 2001 but were unable to come to an agreement. Then two weeks ago the companies issued a joint statement saying that Apple was given until February 15 to respond to Cisco’s lawsuit.

At the last minute of that deadline Cisco issued its statement saying it had extended the deadline to February 21, after being contacted by Steve Jobs’ firm. The statement read: “Apple has asked Cisco for another extension on the deadline for Apple to respond to our lawsuit. Cisco has agreed to give Apple an extension until Wednesday, Feb. 21.”