AT&T and Verizon have apparently decided to make peace with each other, with both the carriers dropping their advertising-related lawsuits filed respectively in Atlanta and New York; thereby bringing to an end their bouts of attacks and counterattacks via the advertisement route!

While the AT&T’s early November-filed lawsuit pertained to Verizon’s allegedly ‘misleading’ TV commercial about its 3G coverage; Verizon’s July-filed lawsuit targeted the AT&T claims about having the “Best Coverage,” and “More Bars in More Places.”

The AT&T-Verizon brawl, which clearly indicated the intensifying competition between the two rival US carriers, was largely a back-and-forth mudslinging of sorts. However, it also included some implicit subplots - like the Verizon attack against the Apple iPhone while promoting the Motorola Droid.

Though the legal spat between AT&T and Verizon is on its way to become a happening of the past, their skirmish has brought up an interesting trend, as noted of late by an article in The New York Times – that of a growing number of rival companies filing lawsuits related to ‘misleading’ advertising campaigns.

While some of the ‘misleading’ ads complaints are filed with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus - the industry's leading self-regulatory program for countrywide ads -, others are filed in the court under the Lanham Act of 1946, which reinforces the country’s trademark law.