Time Inc. Magazine Co. v. Globe Communications Corp.

712 F. Supp. 1103, 10 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 16 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1746, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5151, 1989 WL 55165
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 9, 1989
Docket89 Civ. 2336 (RWS)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 712 F. Supp. 1103 (Time Inc. Magazine Co. v. Globe Communications Corp.) 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
Time Inc. Magazine Co. v. Globe Communications Corp., 712 F. Supp. 1103, 10 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 16 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1746, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5151, 1989 WL 55165 (S.D.N.Y. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

SWEET, District Judge.

Plaintiff The Time Inc. Magazine Company (“Time”) has moved by an Order to Show Cause for a preliminary injunction pursuant to Rule 65 Fed.R.Civ.P. restraining defendant Globe Communications Corporation (“Globe”) from using elements of the plaintiff’s People Weekly (“People”) cover format, claiming that such use constitutes statutory unfair competition violating Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) and common law unfair competition under New York law. Upon the findings and conclusions set forth below, the motion for a preliminary injunction is granted.

Prior Proceedings

This action was filed on the date that the Order to Show Cause was obtained, April 11, 1989. The motion was considered on affidavits, argued and fully submitted on April 21, 1989. The facts set forth below are uncontested except as noted.

Facts

Plaintiff Time is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in New York. It is engaged in the publication of magazines, including People, which are offered for sale, sold, and distributed here in New York. The principal readership of People is men and women in their 20s and 30s. Time has published People since 1974 on a weekly basis. Since then the magazine has enjoyed much popularity and broad circulation. Between 1981 and 1988, over 1,130,000,000 copies of the magazine have been sold. Sales revenue for People during the same period exceeded $1,340,-000,000.

Time has continuously advertised and promoted People through television commercials, for which Time has spent over $10 million, in each of the past five years, over 7,500,000 direct mail solicitations and promotions conducted by agencies such as Publishers Clearing House and American Family Publishers. More than half of the sales of the magazine sold at $1.79 per copy, occur at newsstands, grocery stores, supermarkets, terminals and bookstores. Over half of these sales occur at grocery stores and supermarkets, where magazines are stacked on racks and portions of the covers are hidden.

Time claims without refutation that many of their purchasers are repeat buyers who are looking for a familiar cover format and take an average of six seconds to decide which magazine they will purchase. Time therefore alleges that their cover format is the single most important selling *1105 tool in these advertising and promotional vehicles.

The People cover format has had few changes since its first publication in 1974. The logo has appeared in substantially the same manner, displayed in white Egyptian extra bold condensed type. The logo is also hand-altered so that the letters touch or blend into each other.

Beginning in 1982, all cover billings appeared in helvética extra bold condensed type. For the past one and a half years, the cover billings have consistently used a combination of typefaces with the main headline in futura extra bold condensed type and with all other cover billings remaining in helvética extra bold condensed type. In addition, 90% of the covers use a drop shadow on the main headline type.

Since 1987, People has frequently displayed a photograph in the upper right hand corner of the cover, accompanied by a secondary billing set off within a bar or rule, placed to the left of the photograph.

Time maintains that the cover of People plays a critical role in the newsstand sales and that the substantially consistent cover subject and cover format are used to attract readers who rely on the distinctive cover format in selecting the magazine for purchase. Time claims that the distinctiveness of the cover lies in the combination of various elements such as:

(1) The white Egyptian extra bold condensed type which has been hand altered so that the letters touch or blend into each other;

(2) The display of the logo with a contrasting colored border;

(3) The positioning of a secondary cover photograph in the upper right hand corner; and

(4) The placement of a secondary billing along the top portion of the cover set off within a bar or rule.

According to Time, these elements combine to give People a unique cover format that is universally associated with the magazine and is a means by which it is known to the public and its source of origin identified.

Globe is a New York Corporation with its principal place of business in New York. It publishes over twenty newspapers and magazines, including Celebrity Plus (“Ce lebrity’’), the magazine at issue in this action. Celebrity is a celebrity-oriented magazine containing news and articles about famous persons, supplemented with photographic material. The magazine has also dealt with health-related and self-help issues.

Celebrity’s readership is comprised primarily of women between the ages of 39 and 44. The magazine is published on a monthly basis. In the two and one half years that the magazine has been on the market, Globe has invested over $6 million dollars in its development, promotion and marketing. Approximately 250,000 copies are printed per month at $1.95 per copy in most locations.

Globe’s first publication of the magazine in January 1987, originally called Celebrity Focus, displayed the name Celebrity Focus in a bold white typeface logo, highlighted by a black dropped shadow. The dropped-shadow effect used on the logo was also employed on the typeface of the cover billings which were vertically displayed alongside the cover photograph. A star design of contrasting color appeared over the “i” in the Celebrity Focus title in lieu of a dot.

After some months, Globe experimented with a new cover format to increase its newsstand sales. Accordingly, in June 1987, the cover format of Celebrity Focus displayed a secondary cover billing along the top portion of the cover page set within a contrasting color rule.

Globe’s statistics demonstrated that sales had risen as a result of that effort. Globe continued to experiment with the cover format and, in September 1987, added a secondary photograph to the upper left-hand corner of the cover page relevant to the adjacent secondary billing.

The inset photograph remained on the upper left-hand portion of the cover page for several months, but the dropped-shadow of the Celebrity Focus logo was eliminated. Alternatively, Globe experimented with several color designs for the title and, *1106 in the October 1987 issue of Celebrity Focus, employed a black border around the letters of the logo.

The secondary billing set off by a rule of contrasting color remained an element of the Celebrity Focus

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712 F. Supp. 1103, 10 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1915, 16 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1746, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5151, 1989 WL 55165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/time-inc-magazine-co-v-globe-communications-corp-nysd-1989.