[Milsurplus] wwII walkey talteys

[aGEnuine ham]

Group:

The names Handie-Talkie� and Walkie-Talkie� as spelled are both
trademarks of the Galvin Manufacturing Company, now masquerading as
Motorola, and I believe are currently still registered. Use of y instead
of ie by a competitor was tested in court, and Motorola won.   Handy or
Walky is OK but the combinations Handy-( or Handey- or Walky- or
Walkey-)Talky (or Talkie or Talkey) was ruled to violate the trademark. 
Somewhere I have read the story of the genesis and litigation of these
names, perhaps in a Motorola historical retrospective, and my fading
memory puts the first Walkie-Talkie trademark name on the BC-611, but I
could easily be wrong.  One of you collectors with the WW2 radio magazine
articles about military radios in the war take a look and see what they
were called in the publicity stories, or in the Motorola (Galvin)
advertisements.  In any event, they predated CB by 20 years or so.

73,
George
W5VPQ

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