Samantha Maldonado, writing for The City Reporter:

The letter, sent July 20, states the app and its ads and online materials use “nearly identical” branding and colors as the city’s WalkNYC materials. The app’s contents “have caused confusion to locals and visitors and intimates that the City of New York is affiliated,” the letter alleges.

DOT directed the app to stop using WalkNYC branding, disable the website and app, and remove physical and online material promoting it.

The letter prompted developer Joe Puccio to add a banner to the top of the app that reads, “NYC DOT sent me a cease and desist. Tell them why you use WalkNYC.” App users are directed to a form indicating Puccio wants to share letters of support with DOT from app users.

“Like the DOT, I want to support the walkers of this city, and I’m hopeful we can work something out with them given that shared goal,” the form states. It includes questions about whether the app changed the way users walk around the city and if users had heard of DOT’s WalkNYC signs and maps before.

Quite a coincidence that I only recently learned of this app when I linked to it last month. What really grinds my gears about Mr. Puccio’s statement is that it doesn’t matter if anyone using the app was familiar with the city’s WalkNYC signage, because he definitely did.

The developer is free to solicit letters of support from users all he wants, but this single fact means he is only setting himself up for a legal battle he has zero chance of winning:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the New York City government federal trademark registration for WalkNYC in 2014. A decade later, DOT renewed the registration for another 10 years. The registration gives DOT the exclusive right to use WalkNYC and stop others from using the same or similar in association with related services.