• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Tribune

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

OmegaMB

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts

I'm working on a news website, and was curious to see if I would be able to use the work Tribune in the name, or is this word trademarked? Thanks!
 


quincy

Senior Member
It is probably okay to use the word "tribune" for your news website. The word itself is not trademarked, but whether you are infringing on another's use of the word tribune depends on how exactly you use it.

The word "tribune" means "a champion of the people" or "a dias for speakers" and it is used in the title of many newspapers throughout the country. However, there have been lawsuits filed over the use of the word "tribune" in the past. The key to winning such a lawsuit is to make sure that your use does not cause consumer confusion.

A news site that would sue you over your use of the word "tribune" would have to prove that an appreciable number of viewers to your site mistook your site as one associated with or originating from them.

A court considers several things in a trademark infringement suit, including the similarity between the two marks, the competitive proximity of the products, the intent by one party to confuse consumers, any evidence of actual confusion, and the degree of care that is expected from consumers to tell the difference between the products.

Trademarks that are given the most protection from the outset under trademark law are the ones that are "arbitrary" or "fanciful." These marks (like Kodak or Google) have been created and have no real meaning on their own. The only meaning is their over-time connection to their product or service. The trademarks given the least protection are ones using generic words (like Lite Beer and Tribune).

There are also suggestive marks, which require a little imagination in order to see a connection between the name and the product, and there are descriptive marks, which simply describe the nature or function of the product. Any generic, suggestive, or descriptive mark can acquire a "secondary" meaning in the consumer's mind over time, as "McDonald's" and "Roach Motel" and "Dunkin' Donuts" have. These generic, suggestive and descriptive names have become strong marks and now warrant the greatest level of protection under trademark law.

Using the same words for your news site as used by another newspaper, therefore, does not necessarily mean that your mark would be infringing on the mark of another. Whether there is infringement can also depend on how your title looks (font size, color of banner, placement of words). The difference in the visual appearance between your "tribune" and another's "tribune" can be sufficient to distinguish your news site from another, so as to not confuse consumers.

As long as you have no intent to confuse and there is no evidence of bad faith, and no evidence of consumer confusion, and as long as your use of the word "tribune" is different enough to distinguish your name from that of another, you should not have a problem with your use of the word tribune for your news website.

It ALWAYS pays to have an attorney review any website plan prior to publication, however, to ensure as much as is humanly possible that you have avoided any legal risks with your site. Having insurance to cover your site in the event of a lawsuit is also wise.
 
Last edited:

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top