“AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.”

– Excerpt from Verizon’s response to AT&T’s complaints about its new ad campaign

Verizon was right. The truth does hurt. And it is especially painful when it’s meted out by a court of law. A U.S. District judge on Wednesday denied AT&T’s request to force Verizon to pull its “There’s A Map For That” and “Island of Misfit Toys” commercials, saying that while the ads might be “sneaky,” they are not deceptive.

“People might misunderstand [Verizon’s commercials],” said U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten, “but that doesn’t mean they’re misleading.”

He gave AT&T (T) another chance to make its case at a Dec. 16 hearing, but given his dim initial view of the company’s complaint, the carrier seems unlikely to prevail.

AT&T plans to press on with the case anyway. “While we are disappointed with the court’s decision on our request for a temporary restraining order, we still feel strongly that Verizon’s ads mislead consumers into thinking that AT&T doesn’t offer wireless service in large portions of the country, which is clearly not the case,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in an email. “We look forward to presenting our case to the court in the near future.”

In the meantime, AT&T has begun running some attack ads of its own. Sadly, the first effort is not nearly so clever as Verizon’s (VZ) and features far too much Luke Wilson and far too little humor.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Verizon to AT&T: Do Yourself a Favor and Shut Up
• Frosty’s Winter Litigation Wonderland: AT&T Demands Verizon Pull Holiday iPhone Ads [With Full Complaint]
• Verizon Banishes iPhone to Island of Misfit Toys
• Verizon on AT&T Suit: There’s a Word for That. “Junk.”
• Verizon to iPhone Users: “Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That.”

Marked by panic selling and wet-your-pants fear, it was one of the worst weeks in the financial world’s history–a week that cut the legs out from under Google (GOOG), beat Yahoo until its market cap bled purple and caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to swing more than one thousand points on an intra-day basis.

It was a week that saw Sequoia Capital warn its portfolio companies to prepare for a protracted downturn or, in the words of partner Michael Moritz, be “spattered on windshields and radiator grills and be forgotten.” Turns out Bubble 2.0 sounds a lot like Bubble 1.0 when it pops.

Beneath the screams of agony echoing across Wall Street, there was other news worth noting:

• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced plans to spin off its manufacturing operations.
• “Legal” turned out to be a poor choice of adjectives for RealNetworks’ RealDVD (RNWK), the company’s new “legal” DVD ripper. A judge extended the temporary restraining order barring the company from distributing it.
• This just in: Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL and Yahoo (YHOO) are still talking about a merger and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
  Where is Microsoft (MSFT) in all this? Sitting on the sidelines hoping the deal will go through.
• Finally, activist investor Eric Jackson, the creator of the Yahoo! Plan B investor community, revealed Yahoo! Plan C: his hedge fund’s divestiture of its Yahoo stake.

“I am extending the temporary restraining order because I’m not satisfied in the fact that this technology is not in violation,” Patel explained. “There are serious questions about copyright violations. There are questions about violations of the (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and violations of these companies’ agreement.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Rent. Rip. Restraining Order.
• StealDVD? Well, You Were Asking for It…
• Sue. Rent. Rip. Return.
• Rent. Rip. Return.