Guide files protest against Sun paper

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

The Baltimore Guide and R & B Publishing Company have filed a Letter of Protest to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), objecting to the planned name and look of the Baltimore Sun’s planned daily newspaper named “b”.
The Sun’s new publication looks strikingly similar to The Guide’s publication called b•morelive, which was launched last summer. The similarity is so strong that advertisers and readers are already having difficulty telling them apart.
“It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” said b•morelive publisher Richard Sandza. “But when the imitation amounts to identity theft, it’s not flattering. Not at all.”
b•morelive was created last summer by the staff of The Baltimore Guide. It has been established as a widely circulated publication covering leisure time events and activities. It has been warmly received by Baltimore’s young adult community.
b•morelive is available online at bmorelive.com and on cell phones at mobile.bmorelive.com, both of which were launched in September. b•morelive has a MySpace page, a Facebook group and a Flickr page. bmorelive.com is supplemented with bmoretunes.com, a music blog site.
In a February 27, 2007 letter to Sun publisher Timothy Ryan, attorneys representing R & B Publishing Company demanded that the Sun “immediately discontinue any plans or preparations to use…any other colorable imitations of our client’s B Marks and Orange Trade Dress, including removing the…marks from any advertisements, marketing materials and websites and abandoning any plans to use orange colored newspaper boxes for distribution thereof.”
Since receiving the notice, The Baltimore Sun has produced and distributed marketing materials using the “b” and the orange color. The result has been confusion. Readers and advertisers of b•morelive have already been confused by the similarity between b•morelive and “b” even though it has not been published—based solely on their marketing materials. The newspaper is not scheduled to be published until April 14.
One b•morelive advertiser reported that when he received an invitation to a Baltimore Sun launch party, he thought that it was a b•morelive party because of the similarities in the formatting and the color. “I thought it was you guys,” he said.
The Sun’s new daily is their latest effort to try to boost flagging circulation and readership. It is modeled after “Red Eye,” a young adult oriented free newspaper created by The Chicago Tribune, the Sun’s parent company.
“Certainly the Baltimore Sun has every right to start a new newspaper,” said Sandza, “but they have no right to imitate our name and look and colors. Surely the $8 billion Chicago Tribune company doesn’t need to copy from smaller Baltimore companies to do its business.” Tribune company owns The Baltimore Sun and more than 25 other newspapers, 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs.
R & B Publishing Company is a Baltimore-based private company which publishes The Guide, b•morelive, The Times-Herald and publishes several websites related to the publications.
The Guide’s attorneys have also demanded that The Sun “immediately withdraw the three pending trademark applications pending in the PTO and provide us with your assurances that you will not proceed with the planned launch of the print and online entertainment publication using our client’s B Marks, Orange Trade Dress or any other names, marks, logos or indicia that may be confusingly similar to consumers, readers and advertisers. “
R & B Publishing Company has written a letter of protest to the US Patent and Trademark office, pointing out the close similarity between the existing b•morelive look and name and the Sun’s planned publication. The Sun has applied for a trademark on its “b” name and its orange color which they plan to use on newspaper boxes. b•morelive has orange newspaper boxes for its p