They are suing Al Franken for using the words 'Fair and Balanced' in the title of his new book. Great free publicity for Al [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

Fox Sues Humorist Al Franken Over Slogan

The Associated Press
Monday, August 11, 2003; 5:15 PM


NEW YORK - Fox News Channel has sued liberal humorist Al Franken and the Penguin Group to stop them from using the phrase "fair and balanced" in the title of his upcoming book.

Filed Monday in Manhattan, the trademark infringement lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Penguin to rename the book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." It also asks for unspecified damages.

Fox News registered "Fair & Balanced" as a trademark in 1995, the suit says.

Franken's "intent is clear - to exploit Fox News' trademark, confuse the public as to the origins of the book and, accordingly, boost sales of the book," the suit said.

Calls to Penguin and Franken's publicist were not immediately returned. The book is due out next month.
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It's too bad Al is not running for Governor of California. I'd love to see the debate between him and Arnold [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 08-12-2003, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: Rokenn ]

Yeah, I heard about this on the news this morning. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

MHO: Legally, there will be no likely consumer confusion, ergo no TM lawsuit. However, it'd be worth seeing Fox win if we could also see consumer groups turn around and sue Fox for fraudulent and misleading advertising. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

While we are at it can we sue Fox for confusing the war on terror with the war on Iraq. ;)

read two similar things some months ago

- Ferrero (chocolate company) successfully sued the NGO website www.kinder.de for trademark violation.
"kinder" is one of their brand names but also the German word for children.
The site was offering advice for young parents.

- German Telekom tried to register the colour combination of Magenta and White unsuccessfully. They also tried to gain rights for all websites starting with the letter "t" (NO joke!)

When Monsanto patented BT corn and soy, it took advantage of a lack of knowledge at the US PTO (patent & trademark office) and, quite literally, owns the patent on any genetic modification to these plants. ;)

Some brilliantly ironic additions from Drudge Report:

[ 08-12-2003, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

GASP - how could there be consumer confusion on this - surely no-one associates FOX News with the words "Fair and Balanced". Perhaps there ought to be a counter suit against FOX on the grounds that their public slogan is so evidently misleading ;) .

Franken fires back!

Story

<font color=Cadetblue>This is almost as stupid as Spike Lee suing TNN when they wanted to change their name to Spike TV.</font>

The only source of unbiased reporting on Fox that I know of is The Simpsons. It is the only program Fox has that has a TV personality and the level of journalism of integrity is much higher than their news programs. Besides, I think Homer is much smarter than O'Riley.

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] *APPLAUSE* [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]
You are SO right. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Keeps all the lawyers paid I guess. :D </font>

[ 08-13-2003, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Guess who's lawsuit got dissed?

Story

Argh I'm surrounded by democrats! ARGH! Ok ok, i've never looked at FOX as fair and balanced, its not, its conservative, of course I never looked at CNN as fair and balanced either, they are obviously liberal. As for my local news in hawaii, jeez they have got to be the worst example of fair and balanced news, definately liberal indeed, anyhow I don't think there are ANY fair and balanced news sources, its all liberal or conservative even though most Americans mark themselves as independants or moderates. Wheres the love I tell ya!

<font color='white'> You get used to all the liberal non sence after a while...Well ok, no you dont. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Fraken is a sad person. I dont know why any one would waste their time filing a law suit against him. I wonder how he's doing on the book sales. </font>

Remakably well actually!



[ 08-23-2003, 04:04 AM: Message edited by: Donut ]

Woah.. I aint no stinkin demo-crat. Aint no steenkun ree-publican eeeither. ;)

Pity the judge who threw it out didn't go on to find FOX in contempt of basic broadcasting ideals and standards of human intelligence for even attempting to tie the words "fair and balanced" to themselves. If ever there was a case for a lawsuit on the basis of misleading advertising ...... ;)

I always wondered:
Why is it fraud, if a poor guy - who desperately needs the money - sells you something telling you everything is alright although it's broken.
BUT
If a company which sells something which is low quality and will break in half a week tells you the thing is alright and will hold forever, it's advertisement.

I mean, come on, what kind of hypocrisy is that. "The people who watch our commercials know very well that this cleaner/fragrance/car/microwave pizza/... does not clean/smell/run/taste THAT well like we show it on TV. It's just advertisement everybody knows that"
And if they don't they get screwed. I understand (although don't like) that politicians can't be held responsible for breaking their campaign promises (because they can't actually know if they'd be possible after election) but why can't a company be held responsible for advertising something as the "new revolution in taste" when it closely compares to rotten eggs.