Holdings v. New York Post Publishing Inc.

63 F. Supp. 3d 328, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165632, 2014 WL 6603989
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 17, 2014
DocketNo. 14-cv-8310 (VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 63 F. Supp. 3d 328 (Holdings v. New York Post Publishing Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holdings v. New York Post Publishing Inc., 63 F. Supp. 3d 328, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165632, 2014 WL 6603989 (S.D.N.Y. 2014).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge.

Plaintiff NYP Holdings (“NYP Holdings”), the publisher of the New York Post, brings this action for injunctive relief and damages, alleging that defendants New York Post Publishing Inc., Steven Jude Hoffenberg (“Hoffenberg”), and Jane Does 1 through 10 (collectively, “Defendants”), have unlawfully appropriated NYP Holdings’s “NEW YORK POST” trademarks (“NEW YORK POST Marks”). NYP Holdings alleges that Defendants’ usage of the NEW YORK POST Marks constitutes: (1) trademark infringement in violation of Section 32(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1114(l)(a); (2) trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition in violation of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); (3) trademark dilution in violation of Section 43(c) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c); (4) trademark cyberpiracy under Section 43(d) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) (also known as the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, or “ACPA”); (5) common law trademark infringement and unfair competition; and (6) trademark dilution in violation of New York General Business Law § 360-1. (See Compl., Dkt. No. 1, at 19-27.) Among other relief, NYP Holdings seeks to enjoin [331]*331Defendants from infringing the NEW YORK POST Marks, including but not limited to the use of the “NEW YORK POST PUBLISHING INC.” trademark and the “NEWYORKPOSTPUBLISHINGINC” domain name. {See Compl. 28-29.)

NYP Holdings filed its Complaint on October 16, 2014, and the Court issued an Order to Show Cause (Dkt. No. 4) on the same day, setting a Show Cause Hearing for October 31, 2014. Defendants were ordered to show cause as to why they should not be preliminarily enjoined, pursuant to Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, from, among other activities, using the NEW YORK POST Marks or any trademarks likely to be confusingly similar to, or to dilute, NYP Holdings’s trademarks, as well as using the domain name “NEWYORKPOSTPUBLISHIN-GINC.” {Id.) NYP Holdings filed a Memorandum of Law in Support of Order to Show Cause for Preliminary Injunction and Expedited Proceedings (“PI. Mem.”) on October 17, 2014, and restricted the scope of its preliminary injunction request to its federal trademark infringement and ACPA violations claims. {Id. 9 n. 33.)

Hoffenberg, proceeding pro se, then filed two motions (Dkt. Nos. 11,1 122) on October 21, 2014. NYP Holdings, presumably construing Hoffenberg’s first motion (Dkt. No. 11)3 as a response to the Order to Show Cause, filed a Reply Memorandum (Dkt. No. 15) on October 29.

On October 31, 2014, after hearing arguments from the parties, the Court granted NYP Holdings’s request for a preliminary injunction, enjoining Defendants from using the NEW YORK POST Marks in violation of the Lanham Act. The Court then issued an order on November 6, 2014 (“November 6 Order”), reciting preliminary findings, explaining with greater specificity the restrictions imposed by the preliminary injunction, and prohibiting Defendants from, among other things: (1) “[u]sing the ‘New York Post Publishing Inc.’ Mark, or any trademark, service mark, or trade dress that is confusingly similar to any of the NEW YORK POST Marks, on or in connection with any goods or service in commerce in a manner that is likely to cause • confusion in the minds of the public”; and (2) “[o]perating a website with the domain name newyorkpostpub-lishinginc.com, or any other website with a domain name that uses, incorporates, or is confusingly similar to any of the NEW YORK POST Marks.” (Dkt. No. 21.) This Decision and Order provides the findings, reasoning, and conclusions that form the basis for .the November 6 Order.

[332]*332I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND4

The New York Post is a daily newspaper, sold in many states throughout the United States, both at newsstands and by subscription. It purports to be the oldest, continuously published daily newspaper in the United States. The New York Post began publishing news on the web in 1996 and has done so continuously since then, using the website www.nypost.com (“NY-Post.com”). 3STYPost.com is one of the most-read newspaper websites in the United States, with approximately 98 million page views per month, and the website is also accessed by users outside of the United States.

NYP Holdings is the publisher of the New York Post and has owned the newspaper since 1993. NYP Holdings is the owner of a number of United States registered trademarks for its goods and services, including “NEW YORK POST” for daily newspapers, online newspapers, and news delivered to mobile devices, as well as nonfiction books, tee-shirts, and mugs (collectively, the “NEW YORK POST Marks”), including:

1) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg., No. 1,526,818, dated February 28, 1989, for “Daily newspaper” (PI. Mem., Gavenchak Decl. (“Gavenchak Deck”), Ex. A, at 1);
2) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 2,213,076, dated December 22, 1998, for “Daily newspaper covering a variety of topics” (Gavenchak Deck Ex. A, at 2);
3) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,639,502, dated June 16, 2009, for “Computer services, namely, providing an online newspaper featuring current local, national and international news and news analysis on a wide variety of topics, photographs, information about a wide variety of topics related to business, sports, gossip, entertainment, celebrities, celebrity life style, travel, fashion and clothing, health, coupons, games, and astrology, accessible via the Internet; publication of a daily electronic newsletter featuring a wide variety of topics related to current local, national and international news, business, sports, gossip, entertainment, travel, fashion, health and local weather, accessible via the Internet” (Gavenchak Deck Ex. A, at 3);
4) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,652,365, dated July 7, 2009, for “Electronic transmission of newspaper and website content to mobile devices” (Gavenchak Deck Ex. A, at 4);
5) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 4,056,288, dated November 15, 2011, for “Downloadable software in the nature of an application for obtaining news, information, commentary, and textual, audio, and visual content of the type found in general interest publications on mobile and stationary consumer elec[333]*333tronic devices” (Gavenchak Decl. Ex. A, at 5);
6) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,098,182, dated May 30, 2006, for “Printed non-fiction books on a variety of topics” (Ga-venchak Deck Ex. A, at 6);
7) NEW YORK POST, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 3,199,514, dated January 16, 2007, for “Tee shirts, sweatshirts” (Gavenchak Deck Ex.

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63 F. Supp. 3d 328, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165632, 2014 WL 6603989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holdings-v-new-york-post-publishing-inc-nysd-2014.