He thinks he owns the sky. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is embroiled in a trademark dispute over the name of its European TV division, BSkyB, which operates under the name Sky TV. It has recently been revealed that News Corp is challenging Skype and seeking to prevent them from using their name and logo. From The Telegraph (a Murdoch owned rag)…
Sky is involved in a long-running dispute with Skype in relation to several trade mark applications filed by Skype, including, but not limited to, television-related goods and services,” the spokesman said. “The key contention in the dispute is that the brands ‘Sky’ and ‘Skype’ will be considered confusingly similar by members of the public.
Really? Then you would think that Murdoch would have a problem with the name of this web site: News Corpse. If adding two letters to the end of the word “sky” is confusingly similar, then why not adding two letters to the end of News Corp?
Some other potential targets of Murdoch’s legal team may include actors Ione Skye and Michael J. Fox. Big Sky, Montana may be at risk as well. And don’t forget that Murdoch also owns the Wall Street Journal, so New York may have to change their street name. In fact, since Murdoch’s global enterprise uses the word “news,” every other company that does so might have to lawyer up, including NBC News and the Dallas News.
But none of these scofflaws are as brazen as I am. Apparently Murdoch is afraid of me as he sits trembling in his penthouse watching his fingernails grow. What other reason could there be for his cowardly silence in the face of what he must regard as obvious infringement?
Yo Rupert…I got your confusingly similar right here. So bring it on you crusty, old, lily-livered, wretch.
Jim Morrison is dead. The lizard king once wrote a song called,”20th Century Fox” which has been covered by a number of bands. Hell, if he could extend his claim to every word used in every title of every 9:00 p.m. show on Sunday that ran for a week, the entire English dictionary would be trademarked. I have a pet name for this type of person,”Sue douche”.
The Judge in the “fair and balanced” lawsuit already told this bunch of idiots they can’t take the dictionary and pick out words that they “own”. Now if NewsCorpse could could come up with a really clever parody of page 3, it might send that old fart over the edge. We can only hope.
Hilarious! Thanks for a good laugh! I love the way you turn the Beck “red phone” concept against Murdoch.
Then I think you’ll like this too.
The Telegraph isn’t owned by Murdoch.
You might be thinking of the Times…
Actually, the News Corp web site shows The Telegraph as a News Corp property. But upon further investigation it is The Telegraph in Australia.
Thanks.
You do realize News Corp does not own BSkyB, right? 39% ownership. Legal actions like this typically don’t involve the board of directors… they’re run by the legal department. Board members POSSIBLY could have pushed it, but News Corp related board members are 4 out of 14.
You do realize that 39% makes News Corp the biggest shareholder, right? And that Murdoch is presently trying to buy ALL of the outstanding shares so that he will own BSkyB outright. And his son, James Murdoch, is the current Chairman of the company.
What on earth is your point? Are you seriously trying to imply that BSkyB is not controlled by Murdoch?