Bay Area News Group issues cease and desist to Occupied Oakland Tribune

Published on Saturday, January 07, 2012
Last updated on 01:17AM, Saturday, January 7, 2012
Occupied Oakland Tribune photo supplied by Scott Johnson

Occupied Oakland Tribune photo supplied by Scott Johnson

The Bay Area News group issued a cease and desist order to the volunteers running the Occupied Oakland Tribune this week, Oakland Local has learned. 

Andrew Huntington, General Council for BANG, issued a cease and desist letter and provided document on the Oakland Tribune mark at 1:48 p.m. Friday.

Scott Johnson, one of the editors/producers of the OOT, says that will be talking to his lawyer and will be issuing a statement over the weekend.

Meanwhile, here's the materials OL obtained:

01-06-12 Cease and Desist - Occupy Oak Trib

Oakland Tribune TM Reg

For more coverage of Occupy Oakland follow Oakland Local: http://oaklandlocal.com/occupy

About Susan Mernit
Susan Mernit is the founder of Oakland Local. She is also a circuit rider for The Community Information Challenge, a program of The John S and James L Knight Foundation, and a consultant to non-profit and community organizations. Susan lives in North Oakland, near the Santa Fe school, with her partner, her housemate, a rescue dog named Cazzie, and a yard full of ants. She is an aspiring gardener, a long-time blogger & entrepreneur, and a recovering journalist who's found home in Oakland.
Eric K Arnold commented at Fri, 6 Jan at 6:42pm

when the Occupied Trib came out i overheard a couple of BANG reporters joking that maybe O/O would occupy the Tribune tower.

naomi schiff commented at Fri, 6 Jan at 9:54pm

It would be pretty easy to make up a parody name to use instead, and not directly infringe. Reminds me of a masterful fake newspaper put out in 1966 by Bill Scott, one of the creators of Bullwinkle. He angrily parodied the racist rightwing local Record-Ledger, putting out his own edition of The Wrecker Ledger, and delivering it to every house in our small town. The original RL headline was an incendiary warning that a Negro family had moved in. Bill's headline was: "Redheaded Family moves into Sunland!" The facsimile was good enough that the real Record Ledger received some confused complaint calls.

naomi schiff commented at Sat, 7 Jan at 2:00am

Really upon further thought the Tribune should pour resources into doing a better paper and quit worrying about its name. Better news content would safeguard the brand a lot more than paying attorney fees. Staff the news room; cover Oakland news, shrink the gargantuan photos now used to cover up the fact that the news hole is miniscule, and I might even overlook the fact that they quit delivering papers on Mondays.

Paul Bass commented at Sun, 8 Jan at 6:56pm

This is pathetic. Do they really think anyone'll get confused? And did the Wall STreet Journal even do this with occupy Wall Street in New York?

 

 

Susan Mernit commented at Mon, 9 Jan at 12:07am

Paul, WSJ never did, to my knowledge. Think they *got* the satire.