Fox Loses Bid to Stop Sale of Franken Book
Fri August 22, 2003 06:31 PM ET
By Gail Appleson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday slammed Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher Penguin Group and refused to stop the sale of the liberal satirist's new book that pokes fun at the network and host Bill O'Reilly.

Fox charged that Franken had violated its trademarked phrase "fair and balanced" by including it on the cover of his book entitled "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." Fox is owned by News Corp. and Penguin is a unit of Pearson . The book went on sale on Thursday.

"There are hard cases and there are easy cases. This is an easy case," said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. "This case is wholly without merit both factually and legally."

"Parody is a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The keystone to parody is imitation. Mr. Franken is clearly mocking Fox," said Chin.

The judge said he thought it ironic that a media company that should be fighting to protect free speech would seek to undermine the First Amendment. He also said he thought the "fair and balanced" trademark is weak because the phrase is used so often.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=...storyID=3324571

This is when the "loser pays" system should kick in. :angry:

Im suprised Fox wasted the money on this one, they must get slammed pretty hard in that book. BTW the Book is now #1 at Amazon.com

Yeah O'reilly supposedly pushed for lawsuit....

Lame....

So I guess tough guy O'reilly is a bit of a bitch.

O'Reilly is a sap, who is just about as objective as a few of the liberals who hang out around here. :lol:

When I first saw this case, the first thing that popped into my head was "they issued a registration for fair and balanced???".

The USPTO (patent and trademark office) is one agency. As we are all experinecing now, the patent office lets lots of slimy wormshit slide thru, and you can see, so does the trademark side of the office.

I have brought action to have two trademarks successfully revoked, it is really not that hard. The second one was the most enjoyable because the guy who owned the trademark was a dick.

What would be REALLY funny now is if MSNBC, or CNN, or another news agency brought action to have the fair and balanced trademark revoked and then use it daily, several times daily. It is a VERY weak trademark and the judge already opened the door for them.

Whatchew talkin 'bout, Willis?

I like that idea, the fuck'em and rub it in their face kind of routine. Let fox crumble in pain as god forbid someone speaks THEIR words.

What good is a propaganda machine, without a good slogan.... :P

O'Reilly is an entertainer same as Limbaugh is. Both of them rile up both the left and the right. That's their job. There is an article in AVN this month about O'Reilly stating he was too busy to be interviewed. That's pretty hypocritical considereng he constantly berates people when they won't go on his show. Apparently the same standards don't apply to him.

Ulfie, you should know by now that rules made for liberals never apply to conservatives. :blink: