'New York Times' Goes After 'Food Section' Blog Tagline
The New York Times, which has been using the motto "All the news that's fit to print" since 1897, recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Josh Friedland, proprietor of The Food Section. Friedland had been using as his blog's tagline "All the news that's fit to eat." Citing lack of time and resources, he's not fighting it.
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9 Comments:
As a few people mentioned on his blog, at least this show's his blog is noteworthy enough to have caught the NYT's attention. It does, however, seem like a silly thing for them to spend their time and resources on.
bitchinlifestyle at 4:45PM on 04/22/09
I think the NY Times should consider the Food Section's tagline the highest form of flattery. In addition, The Food Section often links to stories in the NY Times, which equates to free promo. In these days of blog v. print, the Times should be thrilled to have the crossover working in their favor, as the case appears to be.
I love The Food Section. Who cares what the tagline is? I'm glad they are letting it go.
The NY Times is entitled to protect their intellectual property, but it helps to choose your battles appropriately. In this case, they have generated a negative impression for me.
Cheers,
~ Paula
Paula Maack at 4:54PM on 04/22/09
Josh should just wait a couple years until all print media (including the venerable New York Times) is dead, suffocated by the weight of its own inefficiency, and then he can use whatever tagline he wants.
Cupajo at 5:37PM on 04/22/09
The NYT is totally cracking down on blogs right now. Apparently Apartment Therapy got some sort of take-down notice for use of their images. I don't know exactly how this impacts the Kitchn which is routinely highlighted here but they've been using non-NYT images when they talk about NYT stories.
sally599 at 6:04PM on 04/22/09
Unfortunately, many trademark lawyers would tell you that a trademark owner has to play the big bad ogre and keep even the smallest guys from using their trademarks, because it's a slippery slope. If the trademark owner lets one guy slide because, well, it's just a non-commercial blog, then the next guy who uses it in, say, a slightly more commercial blog - - maybe it has some banner ads - - has a better argument that the trademark owner doesn't have so tight a grip on it, and then the next guy ....
Lorenzo at 6:09PM on 04/22/09
@Lorenzo: So true. It's a bit of a hands-tied thing.
Adam Kuban at 6:17PM on 04/22/09
What about Rolling Stone and their take-off tagline "All the news that fits"?
producestories at 7:07PM on 04/22/09
Isn't the case moot because the NYT hasn't printed news in years?
"All The Lefty Opinion That's Barely Fit To Print"
f650gsd at 10:09PM on 04/22/09
Oh, lovely. Politics. So appropriate in a food blog.
But I must say I'm disappointed in the Times. This seems like an homage, not a trademark violation. And it's so...petty. It's, like, IOC petty. Which is about as petty as it gets.
klg19 at 1:57PM on 04/23/09