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28 July 2015Trademarks

Murdoch publication free to launch in Ireland despite trademark concerns

An Irish court has refused a request by the publisher of one of Ireland’s national newspapers to place an injunction against a proposed online news service owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Yesterday, July 27, the High Court of Ireland rejected the call by The Irish Times Ltd to prevent online news service The Times Irish Edition, or publications with a similar title, from launching because of trademark infringement.

The Times Irish Edition has been proposed by the Murdoch-owned group Times Newspapers, which also owns The Times newspaper in the UK.

But The Irish Times Ltd claimed that the suggested title infringes its trademark.

Opposing the call for an injunction, Times Newspapers denied that the name of the title could cause consumers to be confused with The Irish Times.

Times Newspapers also said that the delay by The Irish Times Ltd in filing for the injunction should be taken into account.

According to both Times Newspapers and Judge John Hedigan, the decision to launch a new Irish-focussed edition was “common knowledge” among journalists since September last year.

But as WIPR previously reported, The Irish Times Ltd only filed for the injunction in May this year.

Hedigan also said that the new publication could not be launched without identifying itself as an Irish edition, The Irish Times reported.

UK-based The Times has been sold in Ireland since 1785 and The Irish Times since 1859. Since the 1980s, an Irish edition of The Sunday Times had also been on sale in Ireland. The Irish and London-based Times have co-existed peacefully during this period, Hedigan claimed.

The Irish Times Ltd owns a trademark for its title covering newspaper publications and other forms of media. It applied for the trademark at the Irish Patents Office in 1996.

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More on this story

Trademarks
21 May 2015   The publisher of The Irish Times newspaper has sued the company behind UK-based newspaper The Times, in a lawsuit centring on a soon-to-be-launched online news service.
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14 October 2015   The Irish Times Ltd has settled its trademark infringement action against Rupert Murdoch-owned Times Newspapers.