Create an Account
username: password:
 
  MemeStreams Logo

Moveon.org launches attack against Fox/ Fox trademarking 'fair and balanced'

search

skullaria
My Blog
My Profile
My Audience
My Sources
Send Me a Message

sponsored links

skullaria's topics
Arts
  Fine Arts
  Fiction
  Non-Fiction
  Movies
   Documentary
  Photography
Business
  Tech Industry
  Telecom Industry
  Markets & Investing
Games
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
  Repair and Improvement
  Parenting
  Pets
Miscellaneous
  Humor
Current Events
  War on Terrorism
  Elections
  Israeli/Palestinian
  North Ireland
Recreation
  Astrology
  Martial Arts
Local Information
  Georgia
   Atlanta
    Atlanta Events
Science
  Astronomy
  Biology
  Environment
  Geology
  Medicine
  Space
Society
  Activism
  Crime
  Education
  Futurism
  International Relations
  History
  Politics and Law
   Civil Liberties
    Internet Civil Liberties
    Surveillance
   Intellectual Property
  Media
   Blogging
  Military
  Philosophy
  Relationships
  Religion
  Security
Sports
Technology
  Computers
   Computer Security
    Cryptography
   Cyber-Culture
   Human Computer Interaction
   Knowledge Management
   Computer Networking
   Linux
   Microsoft Windows
   Perl Programming
   PHP Programming
   Spam
   Web Design
  Military Technology
  High Tech Developments

support us

Get MemeStreams Stuff!


 
Moveon.org launches attack against Fox/ Fox trademarking 'fair and balanced'
Topic: Miscellaneous 8:01 pm EDT, Jul 21, 2004

Common Cause, MoveOn.org, and a bunch of other organizations have launched a campaign to take on Fox for pretending partisan news is "fair and balanced." They've posted a really horrifying but funny video clip highlighting Bill O'Reilly's hypocrisy as well as a complaint to the FTC at:

http://www.moveon.org/fox/

Check it out and send them some email if you like. The plan is to deluge them.

The challenges to Fox's partisanship are mounting. It's crucial that we voice our disgust with Fox's deceptive advertising now.

I used the following in my message body - I follow web law very closely and thus trademark and copyright laws. I know this passage in the Lanham act that says that generic trademarks are not legal - This is what has kicked some granted trademarks in the bootie when challenged:

It is a fundamental principle marking an outer boundary of the trademark monopoly that, although trademark rights may be acquired in a word or image with descriptive qualities, the acquisition of such rights will not prevent others from using the word or image in good faith in its descriptive sense, and not as a trademark. See Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World, Inc., 537 F.2d 4, 12-13 (2d Cir. 1976); Sunmark, Inc. v. Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., 64 F.3d 1055, 1058 (7th Cir. 1995); United States Shoe Corp. v. Brown Group, Inc., 740 F. Supp. 196, 198-99 (S.D.N.Y. 1990); Holzwarth v. Hulse, 14 N.Y.S.2d 181, 181 (Sup. Ct. 1939); Johnson & Johnson v. Seabury & Johnson, 67 A. 36, 38 (N.J. 1907); Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition § 28 (1995); 3A Louis Altman, Callmann on Unfair Competition, Trademarks and Monopolies § 21.24 (4th ed. 1983); Margreth Barrett, Intellectual Property 760-61 (1995). The principle is of great importance because it protects the right of society at large to use words or images in their primary descriptive sense, as against the claims of a trademark owner to exclusivity. See U.S. Shoe, 740 F. Supp. at 198-199. This common-law principle is codified in the Lanham Act, which provides that fair use is established where "the use of the name, term, or device charged to be an infringement is a use, otherwise than as a mark, . . . which is descriptive of and used fairly and in good faith only to describe the goods or services of . . . [a] party, or their geographic origin." 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4).

Fair and balanced was used as a descriptive term long before FOX news decided to take it away from the world.

Moveon.org launches attack against Fox/ Fox trademarking 'fair and balanced'



 
 
Powered By Industrial Memetics
RSS2.0