Opinion ID: 718674
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Alleged Infringer's Intent to Confuse

Text: 19 Plaintiff alleges bad faith on the part of defendants, pointing specifically to defendants' adoption of the mark Saturday Daily News & Tribune and simultaneous decision to expand the Saturday edition to provide regional news coverage shortly after plaintiff's paper extended regional coverage in its Iron Range edition. Plaintiff also points to the absence of a written agreement between Hibbing and Mesabi as evidence that defendants' joint venture explanation for the use of the words Daily News & Tribune is simply an excuse to infringe on plaintiff's mark. 20 We find these bare allegations to be unsupported by the record. The name Saturday Daily News & Tribune is a logical merger of the names Daily News and Daily Tribune. The identification of defendants' paper as a joint publication appears on each individual paper. The paper's sales extend to cover both the area served by the Mesabi paper and that served by the Hibbing paper. The paper is sold in newsstands identified as belonging to either Hibbing or Mesabi, and through subscriptions to the Mesabi or Hibbing paper. Likewise, defendants announced the formation of the joint Saturday edition in each of their respective papers, clearly identifying the source of the Saturday edition. Moreover, after plaintiff's initial letter protesting the paper's name, defendants contacted the Minnesota Newspaper Association and accepted the Association's recommendation that defendants add an ampersand between the words news and tribune. The record, then, reveals no evidence of bad faith on the part of defendants, leaving no genuine factual dispute regarding defendants' intent.