Judges Denies AT&T's Request To Halt Verizon Ads

AT&T may hate Verizon Wireless' 3G advertising, but the company will have to deal with it now that AT&T's quest to have the ads taken off the air has been thrown out of court.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten denied AT&T's request for a temporary restraining order against Verizon's "There's A Map For That" campaign that would force the wireless carrier to cease running the ads, which unfavorably compare AT&T's 3G wireless map to Verizon's much larger coverage areas. AT&T filed a lawsuit earlier this month claiming the Verizon's ads were misleading consumers to believe that AT&T had extremely limited wireless Internet service. The company even published an open letter to customers claiming Verizon's ads were "blatantly false."

Verizon, meanwhile, continued to antagonize AT&T with more ads for the campaign. In addition, Verizon filed an unusually straightforward and humorous legal brief this week arguing that the ads were true and that "the truth hurts." In fact, AT&T never claimed Verizon's maps were a false representation of AT&T's 3G. Instead, it argued that the ads led consumers to believe they could not use their wireless Internet services outside of the extremely limited 3G areas.

In the end, Judge Batten agreed with Verizon and denied AT&T's restraining order request. The decision is a potential knockout blow for AT&T, which has another chance to plead its case in court on Dec. 16th.

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