AAN Association of Alternative Newsmedia

Phoenix New Times Files Another Lawsuit

september 13, 2010 03:00 pm

Just four days after filing a federal lawsuit against a former employee for cybersquatting on the website domain names bestofphoenix2011.com and bestofphoenix2012.com, Phoenix New Times has turned its attention to the owner of another "Best Of Phoenix" website. Nick Martin at Heat City, once again, gets the scoop:

This time, the suit was brought against a Rochester, N.Y. man named Jeff Rogers, who operates the website thebestofphoenix.org.

According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, Rogers was using the site as a directory of top-rated businesses in Phoenix and asking companies to pay an annual fee to be on it.

Lawyers for the Phoenix New Times claim in the lawsuit that this violates the company’s 13-year-old federal trademark on the term “Best of Phoenix,” which it uses as the title of an annual issue highlighting outstanding businesses, people and events in the area.

The newspaper and VVM are demanding that Rogers take down his website, give them any profits he made off of it and pay as much as $100,000 in damages.

View full article at Heat City