Verizon Wireless’s (VZ) “There’s a Map For That” ads are already a fading memory for those eyeing the newer Droid campaign, but AT&T (T) hasn’t forgotten them.

The telecommunications provider sued Verizon Wireless Tuesday, calling the advertisements “misleading.” Verizon Wireless called the lawsuit without merit, telling The Journal that the ads “clearly explain that non-3G coverage is available elsewhere.”

Here’s how AT&T describes the campaign, from its complaint:

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The creators of “iDon’t Care,” a video spoofing Motorola (MOT) and Verizon Wireless’s (VZ) “iDon’t” ad, said some of their detractors are missing the point.

Three Boston-area ad-agency staffers developed “iDon’t Care.” They said they aren’t affiliated with Apple (AAPL) or any of the other companies involved in the original campaigns–they are, however, iPhone and Mac loyalists, said Jon, one of the video’s editors (they declined to give their last names, citing fears of legal action from any of the companies woven into their spoof). They decided shortly after the Droid campaign broke that they could easily replicate it.

“It was inescapable,” said Shawn, a creative director. “It became something we all were immediately speaking about.”

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The smart-phone wars are heating up. Handset makers are releasing a wave of new devices backed by a flood of advertisements, as some fight for survival in the fast-growing but increasingly crowded market.

Companies such as Motorola Inc. (MOT), Palm Inc. (PALM) and HTC Corp. are hoping new phones will help them reclaim market share from the reigning iPhone and BlackBerry. To do that, they will need a mix of impressive devices, shrewd pricing and aggressive marketing, analysts say.

Motorola has bet its future on a lineup of new phones that run Google Inc. (GOOG) software. On Wednesday, it is expected to unveil a highly anticipated device dubbed the Droid on the Verizon Wireless network. Verizon (VZ) has been touting the phone in TV ads attacking the iPhone.

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A U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook by Power.com Thursday, the latest move in a back-and-forth legal battle between the two social-media services.

In December, Facebook blocked Power.com, a site that links members’ social-networking accounts, from accessing Facebook profiles. It also sued the company, accusing it of trademark and copyright violations.

Power.com countersued Facebook in July. Its founder, Steve Vachani, has noted that sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Google’s (GOOG) Orkut enable access from Power.com and said at the time that his suit was “about users’ control of their data.” It brought on as legal counsel Scott Bursor, who fought Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Sprint (S) in early-termination-fee disputes.

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) is reportedly in the final stages of negotiating a five-year, multi-million dollar deal for the naming rights to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the decrepit home of the Oakland A’s and the Oakland Raiders. The report, by the San Francisco Chronicle columnists Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, notes that the stadium has been without a naming deal since the expiration of a 10-year naming agreement with McAfee (MFE) in 2007.

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) filed a lawsuit against the film company behind “The Velveteen Rabbit,” accusing it of illegal telemarketing practices.

The suit, filed late Tuesday, says Feature Films for Families made nearly 500,000 calls to Verizon Wireless customers from a 917 number. When answered, the caller played a recorded ad or read a script promoting the movie.

Feature Films used autodialers to barrage customers, placing nearly 11,000 calls from the same number in one hour on Feb. 13, the suit says. The Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act includes protections against telemarketers’ use of autodialers, particularly for cellphone subscribers.

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Before it settled on AT&T (T) as the carrier for the iPhone in the United States, Apple (AAPL) shopped the phone to Verizon Wireless and was shot down. It’s thought that Verizon (VZ) didn’t want to make the concessions (including ceding a lot of control) to Apple, which AT&T ended up doing. Of course, the mobile landscape was very different at the time, and now it’s hard to argue that the iPhone hasn’t changed things significantly. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if Verizon wanted another shot at the iPhone. And if a new rumor coming out of Italy is true, it may get that shot.

The report, by ITExaminer.com, claims to have “deep throats” in Apple saying that iPhones for Verizon Wireless will be announced “soon.” It goes on to say the deal is so secret that Apple isn’t talking about it at all and has been trying to hide job postings for EVDO and CDMA engineers–two cellular technologies that Verizon Wireless uses but AT&T does not.

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MetroPCS’s upcoming expansion to New York and Boston will change the prepaid wireless provider from a regional carrier to one that can compete more with heavyweights like Verizon Wireless (VZ) and AT&T (T).

In an interview with the Journal’s Amol Sharma, MetroPCS CEO Roger Linquist said the company will be building its New York City network–including the five boroughs as well as parts of New Jersey and upstate New York–throughout 2009. MetroPCS ultimately intends to connect that area with Boston and Philadelphia, where it has already begun offering cellphone coverage.

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) have high hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, which they spent nearly two years developing as their big response to Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone.

But despite a marketing campaign that cost more than $100 million, the smartphone has gotten off to a bumpy start. Some early buyers have complained about technical bugs with RIM’s first touchscreen BlackBerry, although others say most new gadgets have problems that need to be ironed out.

When Verizon Communications Inc. reports its fourth-quarter results Tuesday, investors will be looking for clues on how the Storm has fared. Verizon Wireless is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the device.

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The debut today of the Research In Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry Storm, the company’s first touchscreen phone, has drawn long lines at some Verizon Wireless stores, according to Reuters and other news reports. At some stores, people lined up by the “hundreds.”

Reuters notes that more than 200 people had waited at a Verizon store in midtown Manhattan early Friday, but that many were turned away after it ran out of phones less than an hour after it opened at 9 a.m.; according the report, “angry customers caused a ruckus and police came to restore order.”

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Research in Motion (RIMM) should be thanking one particular customer service rep for stopping at least one customer–me–from defecting to AT&T (T) and the [Apple] (AAPL) iPhone this week. I had called in to find out about altering my existing family plan and porting my phone over to AT&T when she asked me if I’d heard of the Blackberry Storm. Of course, I had–but I let her go through her pitch as to why I should wait for its arrival before making a decision.

The Blackberry Storm, you see, is supposed to be a real contender for the iPhone, she said. And though a date hasn’t been announced for the release of the Storm, the customer service reps are expecting it to become available anytime now. Nothing is official, of course–Verizon is being quiet about details of the release. But my rep, a veteran who has seen excitement around new phones in the past, said that when the advertising and marketing campaigns kick into high gear and when details about some of the phone’s features start trickling down to the agents, the launch date is getting close.

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Verizon Wireless (VZ) has aggressively cut retail prices on several models of the Research In Motion (RIMM) Blackberry, as well as smartphones from LG and Samsung, according to research by Morgan Keegan’s Tavis McCourt.

McCourt does a weekly check on smartphone pricing, and this week found big price cuts at Verizon.

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