Irish media company sues Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper

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.

The dispute concerns the online news publication The Times Ireland proposed by the Rupert Murdoch owned group Times Newspapers. The Irish Times has claimed that the title infringes a trademark it owns.

According to a  report by The Irish Times, which is not connected to the Murdoch-owned title, the online newspaper has not yet gone live.

The Irish Times Ltd, the newspaper’s publishing company, has requested that the High Court of Ireland stops Times Newspapers from using the words Times and Ireland in the title.

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

Judge Paul Gilligan, hearing the case at the court yesterday (May 20), granted a request to hear the trial on short notice after the publisher argued that the launch of the news service was “imminent”.

He also granted an ex parte application, a procedure which allows just the asserting party to make its argument at trial.

Jonathan Newman, who is representing The Irish Times, said there is “potential for enormous confusion” if The Times Ireland is launched.

The newspaper has also requested that Times Newspapers is prevented from using the domain names thetimesireland.ie and timesireland.ie.

Both domains were registered in October 2014 and November 2014 respectively.

Currently, the domains direct users to news.co.uk, which outlines all the publications published by News UK, the parent company of Times Newspapers.

The trial is set to continue later this month.

The Irish Times and Times Newspapers had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.