Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel May Challenge Verizon's Plan to Unveil Walkie-Talkie

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 11:33:21 -0400

What has Guzz-man been Guzzeling?

Patrick Guzman, a telecom analyst with Guzman & Co., a Miami money
management firm, said, "Verizon is in blatant violation of Nextel's 'push to
talk' trademark and will certainly be sued by Nextel as soon as possible."

============================================================
Nextel May Challenge Verizon's Plan to Unveil Walkie-Talkie
Wireless Service
Source: The Boston Globe
Publication date: 2003-08-15

Aug. 15--As Verizon Wireless prepares to launch its first walkie-talkie
wireless service Monday, Nextel Communications Inc. indicated
yesterday it may mount a legal challenge to Verizon's "Push to Talk"
brand name, a phrase Nextel said it copyrighted in June.

For more than 10 years, Nextel's Direct Connect has been the only
cellphone service that lets subscribers also use their phone as a private
walkie-talkie with other Nextel subscribers, based on selecting a stored
name and pressing one button to talk, as a quicker alternative to dialing a
phone call.

Verizon, the first of several Nextel rivals expected to roll out similar
services over the next year, plans to market its own version as "Verizon
Wireless Push to Talk," initially with a $150 phone and service plans that
cost about $20 a month more than conventional cellular service for
unlimited walkie-talkie time.

But Nextel said on June 20 the US Patent and Trademark Office had
approved Nextel's request for a trademark on "push to talk" and "PTT."
Verizon filed a lawsuit last month challenging the designation, saying
"push to talk" has been a widely used phrase in the radio communications
industry for more than 60 years.

"We certainly are going to protect it," Nextel spokeswoman Rebecca
Gertsmark said yesterday. "I'm sure that our legal department is going to
look into anybody's use of [the trademarked phrase] very carefully." Nextel
has an Aug. 20 deadline to respond to Verizon's suit challenging the
trademark.

Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier with 34.6 million subscribers,
scoffed at Nextel's suggestion of trademark infringement.

"We believe Nextel does not have exclusive rights to the term 'push to talk'
as it has publicly claimed," Verizon Wireless spokeswoman J. Abra
Degbor said. "Push to Talk is a generic term that has been in widespread
use in the telecom field since the 1940s, and we and other
telecommunications companies use this common generic term to
describe these walkie-talkie-type services."

Nextel's combativeness over the phrase may indicate how concerned
executives there are about losing their claim to being the only wireless
carrier offering walkie-talkie service, analysts said. Nextel posts the
highest average monthly revenue per subscriber of any major US carrier,
with much of its premium attributed to Direct Connect, which about 90
percent of its 11.6 million subscribers use every month.

Telephia Inc., a San Francisco wireless research firm, said in a survey this
spring, "push to talk voice calling" led several other wireless technologies
cited by business people asked to rank technology applications that would
improve employee productivity. However, only 7 percent of company
decision makers polled by Telephia said they plan to implement the
technology in the next 18 months.

Patrick Guzman, a telecom analyst with Guzman & Co., a Miami money
management firm, said, "Verizon is in blatant violation of Nextel's 'push to
talk' trademark and will certainly be sued by Nextel as soon as possible."
But Guzman said he thinks either Verizon is "highly confident that
Nextel's trademark of 'push to talk' and 'PTT' will be reversed by the
courts," or executives have decided that "the publicity surrounding the fight
over Verizon's brand name will garner such significant publicity and
awareness about [its offering] that Verizon doesn't care if they lose in
court."

"Either way, the use of 'push to talk' as the product's brand name is bold,
to say the least, and is a smart move by Verizon, whether they win or lose
in court," Guzman said.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 04:16:36 -0400

Like I said:

Guzzling Guzman will be getting a Nasty Gram for his comment last week
regarding Verizon's use of "Push-To-Talk". He P*** *** quite a few people with that comment. While he may be correct, his
comment was "Out of Line" coming from a  Anal-yst according to Execs.