After CWA Complaint, Comcast Drops Use of 'Speed Matters'

"Speed Matters," the name of CWA's campaign to promote high-speed Internet development, has become well-known from the presidential campaign trails to statehouses around the country to Capitol Hill in Washington (www.speedmatters.org).

When Comcast adopted the term as the marketing slogan for its own Internet services, CWA lawyers cried foul.  They informed Comcast's general counsel that its use of Speed Matters presented a "likelihood of confusion" and the implication that CWA was promoting Comcast's services over its competitors, warning that that constituted trademark infringement.

In response, Comcast has now dropped Speed Matters from the prominent display ad for broadband service at the top of its website and reported that it "has eliminated all known uses of this phrase" in its advertising.