New York Times Sues Huffington Post

Image: alextorrenegra on Flickr

The New York Times is suing the Huffington Post over trademark rights to its successful “Motherlode” blog.

The blog’s lead writer, Lisa Belkin, left the New York Times in October to take up blogging for the new "Parentlode" blog on the Huffington Post. At the crux of the suit, filed last Friday, is the similarity between the two now-competing blogs:

…As is obvious from the Parentlode trademark itself, the trademark has no particular meaning and could not have been selected for any reason but to create an association with NYTCo’s established Motherlode trademark.

…AOL’s and the Huffington Post’s actions result in immediate confusion in the marketplace, with readers of Ms. Belkin’s blog believing her blog was a continuation of NYTCo’s Motherlode blog when it fact NYTCo continues to publish its Motherlode blog.

The suit comes among a number of high-profile Times defections to the Huffington Post, including former Sunday Business editor Tim O’Brien and energy reporter Tom Zeller Jr. But it may prove to be more than just a continuation of the spat between the two organizations. As Alison Frankel at Reuters writes:

Journalists are told nowadays that we need to brand ourselves. This case will test how much a brand belongs to individual writers, and how much it belongs to the news organization they write for.

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