Mobile broadband operators argue over plug-in modem’s nickname

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Teleoperators have a new hit product. The Finns are currently eagerly purchasing mobile broadband connections that operate in the 3G network for a fixed monthly fee with unlimited download.
      The connection is established by using a palm-size modem nicknamed a mokkula, which attaches to a computer’s USB port.
     
The setup intended primarily for laptop computers has proved a hit product, all operators agree without revealing their exact sales figures.
      “We have around 1.3 million customers and we believe that the number of users with a DNA mokkula will reach ten percent this year, enthuses CEO Riitta Tiuraniemi of service provider DNA.
      “One of our competitors has predicted that this year 200,000 mobile broadband connections will be sold in Finland. We agree that this sounds realistic, perhaps even slightly conservative”, Panu Lehti, confirms Executive Vice President at Elisa. The sales figures have been boosted by the quickening of the 3G networks. At present, the connection speeds already reach several megabytes per second.
      The success of the product is unquestionable, but now operators argue over the use of the word mokkula, and whether it should be written with or without a capital “M”.
     
DNA has used the word mokkula quite visibly in its marketing. In October, the company filed a trademark application for the word with the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (PRH).
      Should the application be accepted, it would in all probability prevent DNA’s competitors from using the word in their own wireless broadband advertising campaigns. At least Elisa is anything but pleased with this possibility.
      In January, therefore, Elisa filed its own application for registering the word mokkula as an Elisa trademark instead.
      So far Elisa has not used the word actively in its advertising campaigns, but presumably it is interested in the possibility of incorporating the catchy term in the future.
      “The word has been in use in spoken Finnish long before DNA turned it into the centre of its campaign. It has been used to refer to various things. Personally I have used it to describe small technical gadgets”, Lehti argues.
     
DNA CEO Tiuraniemi disagrees. “At least I have never used the word mokkula in connection with anything else in my life”, she says.
      “In this context the word has only been used since DNA incorporated it in its campaign. Now mokkula is strongly associated with DNA products and services in particular”, adds Asta Rantanen, vice president of legal affairs at DNA.
      Vice President Pasi Mehtonen from TeliaSonera Products and Services shares Elisa’s view.
      “Tökkeli and mokkula are words that have been used for ages at least by the people in this field to describe these sorts of gadgets and widgets.”
      Presumably the PRH lawyers will pronounce their verdict on the dispute later this spring.
      Usually trademark applications take around five months to process, a PRH representative confirms.


Links:
  DNA Press Release

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