Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel may challenge Verizon walkie-talkie

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 23:05:43 -0400

Nextel may challenge Verizon walkie-talkie
By Peter J. Howe
Globe Staff

 8/15/2003

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 over 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.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at [email-masked]

http://business.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2003/08/15/nextel_may_challenge_verizon_walkie_talkie

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