A United States District Court judge ruled yesterday that the title of Al Franken’s forthcoming book, Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, does not infringe Fox News’ claimed “fair and balanced” trademark.
Here’s Susan Saulny’s take in today’s New York Times:
“Calling the motion ‘wholly without merit, both factually and legally,’ the judge, Denny Chin of United States District Court, said that a person would have to be ‘completely dense’ not to realize the cover was a joke, and that trademark protection for the phrase ‘Fair and Balanced’ was unrealistic because the words are so commonly used.”
For his part, Al Franken (who wasn’t present in court) told Saulny the ruling was “a victory for satirists everywhere, even the bad ones. In addition to thanking my own lawyers, I’d like to thank Fox’s lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Franken should thank Fox; he couldn’t buy this kind of publicity at any cost. Penguin, his publisher, will rush the book to market next Thursday with an initial print run of 435,000 copies, 50,000 more than originally planned. This has been orchestrated so well, one has to wonder if it wasn’t all scripted and choreographed like a professional wrestling match.
Indicating a marked sense of humor deficiency, Fox’s lawyers argued in court—presumably with a straight face—that a picture of Fox entertainer Bill O’Reilly on the book’s cover would be seen as an endorsement. Saulny reports that Judge Chin’s question to the Fox lawyer on the point, “Do you think that the reasonable consumer, seeing the word ‘lies’ over Mr O’Reilly’s face would believe Mr. O’Reilly is endorsing this book?” was met with laughter in the courtroom. The reply from the Fox lawyer, “to me, it’s quite ambiguous as to what the message is here, it does not say ‘parody’ or ‘satire,’” was surely delivered in a deadpan as straight as the crease in her clothes.
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