SUN MEDIA THREATENS THIS HERE FINE PUBLICATION WITH LEGAL RESTITUTION UNLESS IT CHANGES NAME. OL' PETEY BEGRUDGINLY OBLIGES

It’s true.

You might not think much of this little newspaper, but it has managed to garner the attention of those as far away as Toronto – the very centre of our universe.

Above is a letter excerpt from the devil’s advocate himself, Sun Media’s legal counsel (and you thought it was just a figure of speech). The letter asks the Nanton News Experiment to refrain from calling itself that as it is “confusingly similar” to the publication the Nanton News.

Below this is an excerpt of the letter and below that, my response to legal counsel.

EXCERPT

Dear Mr. Warden:

You are fully entitled to publish a community publication in Nanton. But you are not entitled to publish one under a name that is confusingly similar to the Nanton News, which is published by Sun Media.

The name “Nanton News” is the valuable intellectual property of Sun Media. By using the name “Nanton News Experiment”, you are very clearly trading on the public reputation of the Nanton News, a name associated in the public mind with Sun Media. The fact of that association could give rise, and may have already given rise, to public confusion between your publication and Sun Media’s, and this may cause Sun Media damage for which you are in law responsible.

Sun Media requires you to take immediate steps to change the name of your publication to one that is clearly and distinctly different from Nanton News or any confusingly similar variation thereof, and to confirm to me when you have done so. … If you fail to do so, Sun Media will consider itself at liberty to take all steps open to it to protect its business and will hold you responsible for all costs incurred in doing so, whether in the form of lost revenue or the costs of enforcing its rights or both.

Yours truly,

Tycho Manson

RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. Manson – Director Legal Affairs, Sun Media

That the name “Nanton News” is the valuable intellectual property of Sun Media – let’s maybe start there.

I quarrel with the use of “intellectual” mainly. This may be one of those things that invariably gets glossed over in legal proceedings, but in the court of public opinion let the record show that Sun Media considers itself valuable intellectual property and I, Peter Worden, do not.

Secondly, that the use of the name Nanton News Experiment clearly trades on the public reputation of the Nanton News, well now you might have me there. I have made many interesting trades in the past two months with my Nanton News Experiment. In particular, I traded one man a cigar for a copy of my newspaper. I traded another woman a pet of her new puppy for a newspaper, too.

What I am getting at is that in conversation with Nanton-folk, and in trading on your reputation, I haven’t sold any newspapers at all. There has been no cost for my paper and no advertising either.

As for the two names being “confusingly similar”, your remark doesn’t say much for the people of Nanton. For one, the Nanton News Experiment is one-sixteenth the size.

"The reputation you are trying to protect by seeking legal action, is – in my conversations with people – not all that great to begin with."

I certainly have not taken any business away from your treasured Nanton News, and I must be honest, the reputation you are trying to protect by seeking legal action, is – in my conversations with people – not all that great to begin with.

Sun Media shut the Nanton News office down. Sun Media has laid-off hundreds of workers. Sun Media doesn’t seem to give an absolute damn for Nanton. What damage then could I possibly be responsible for that Sun Media hasn’t done to itself already?

"What damage then could I possibly be responsible for that Sun Media hasn’t done to itself already?"

The mighty Nanton skyline.

The Nanton News Experiment is and has always been just that – an experiment of the modern-day local newspaper in the beautiful Alberta town of Nanton. While your letter is one variable I hadn’t taken into account, I must, like any good scientist, look at the entire equation. The equation, by my calculations, now requires tweaking otherwise the result will be an obsolete miniature newspaper no one’s ever heard of and its defunct editor several trillions of dollars in debt.

You indicate clearly that your concern is with the name of this publication and so, that’s fair enough. From here on in this news experiment will be referred to simply as: the Nanton Experiment. I’ll take my shots where I may and in the meantime oblige your concern as all my legal counsel monies are currently tied up at a bar of another sort in Nanton’s Auditorium Hotel.

Sincerely,

Peter Worden

Newest editor of the Nanton X