Could Mindich have worked a deal to park WFNX on a boat somewhere?

[A Joseph Ross]

On 7/22/2012 3:56 AM, Kevin Vahey wrote:

> This is why lawyers get rich.....

I'm in the wrong field, I guess. :-)

> Hypothetically let us say 96.9 decided to drop talk and go alternative
> and were awarded the calls WFNX. In a case like that how could Mindich
> argue he still owns the trademark after selling the station? CBS can
> happily park calls like WBCN somewhere but the Phoenix can not.
>
> Carry it one step further - if another station did get the calls WFNX
> could they then challenge that they should own wfnx.com?
>
> I heard tonight that CBS just might do it as WBMX means nothing to them.

As I understand it, trade marking is independent of the FCC assigning 
call letters.  I believe I once explained it on LTAR some years ago that 
if I decided to start a station, call it WCRD, and play classical music, 
the FCC may (probably would) assign the call letters, but there are any 
number of ways that I could be stopped legally, including trade mark 
(assuming the WCRB calls are trade marked), unfair competition, and 
probably some more sophisticated legal theories with which I am unfamiliar.

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A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
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