MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile scrap over MetroFlash program

Filed under: Virgin Mobile

Last year, MetroPCS kicked off the respectably ballsy practice of inviting competitors' subscribers to bring their CDMA phones over to get flashed for use on its network, prompting Virgin -- a carrier that plays in the same value space as MetroPCS -- to take issue. Long story short, Virgin ended up filing a lawsuit against MetroPCS citing a couple claims: one, that MetroPCS is willfully interfering with Virgin's customer contracts, and two, that the flashing ultimately results in a trademark violation since Virgin's logo is still on the phone. Funny how law works, isn't it? Anyhow, a court's thrown out the contract claim but is allowing the trademark issue to proceed, making this an interesting one to watch. In the meantime, anyone looking at bailing to MetroPCS and planning on taking some hardware along for the ride might want to look into that sooner rather than later -- you never know what sorts of injunctions might come out of this.

[Via Phone Scoop]

MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile scrap over MetroFlash program originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source : http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/09/30/metropcs-...