Block-By-Block Walking App Hit With Cease and Desist by NYC

Heyyy, they’re walkin’ here!

The city’s Transportation Department has hit an app that tracks New Yorkers’ block-by-block walking routes with a cease-and-desist letter. DOT wants the free app, called WalkNYC, to walk away and come back with a new name. 

That’s because WalkNYC has the name of DOT’s trademarked wayfinding program, as detailed with maps and directions on sidewalks, near Citi Bike docks and in subway stations. The signs help pedestrians, transit riders and cyclists get around.

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.

Puccio did not respond to requests for comment from The City Reporter.

DOT insists the letter is not about shutting the app down but spurring Puccio to come up with a new name and branding for it.

“We appreciate every New Yorker who enjoys strolling through the most walkable city in the country — but app developers cannot use the city’s trademarked branding for their products without permission,” said DOT spokesperson Vincent Barone. “We do not want there to be any confusion about this product and the city’s wayfinding program.”

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.

Lawyer Stacy Grossman, founder of the intellectual property firm SGIP, pointed out the app and the city’s wayfinding services appear similar, and both use a “walking man” icon. She also said other parties do not appear to have used the WalkNYC trademark.

“All of this together suggests that consumers could be confused and the app should change its name,” said Grossman, who doesn’t represent DOT or the app. “This is precisely why entrepreneurs should do trademark clearance work — to be sure that a new brand is available for use before launching a new product.”

Tracy Jong, senior attorney at the firm Evans Fox LLP who works on intellectual property matters, said it’s possible DOT and Puccio could work out an agreement to allow the WalkNYC app to keep its name.

“That’s where one side says, ‘Hey, we both agree people won’t be confused as long as each of us do the following,’ and you craft appropriate terms,” Jong said. She suggested the app could use a pedometer icon instead of an image of a person walking, or include a disclaimer that the app is not associated with the City of New York.

The app WalkNYC, which became available on the App Store in May, logs each city block that users walk by marking routes with green on a digital map. A leaderboard shows how users compare to each another, and the app includes statistics about mileage and time spent strolling.

When he launched the app, Puccio told news outlets he wanted to walk every block in Manhattan and described the product as his “little love letter” to New York City.

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