Kentucky newspaper seeks to move dispute over name to federal court

By The Associated Press

05.24.02

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INEZ, Ky. — An eastern Kentucky newspaper wants the battle over who owns its name to be waged in federal court.

David Fleenor, a Lexington trademark attorney, filed documents yesterday in U.S. District Court arguing that the weekly newspaper in Inez has every right to continue calling itself the Mountain Citizen. That's despite claims by a local official who says he owns rights to the name and who received a restraining order from a state court judge to stop the newspaper from using it.

Fleenor asked that a petition filed by a local official against the newspaper be moved from Martin Circuit Court to U.S. District Court in Pikeville.

The name, Fleenor said, is the property of the newspaper under federal trademark law, even though it has never been officially registered as such.

"You build trademark rights simply by using the name," he said. "We have built up rights to that name, and we have the right to use that name."

Martin Circuit Judge Daniel Sparks issued a restraining order May 21 telling the newspaper to stop publishing under Mountain Citizen Inc. That name has been legally acquired from the Kentucky secretary of state's office by John R. Triplett, chairman of a local water board that has been the subject of several critical stories.

Triplett said he claimed the name after the newspaper allowed incorporation papers to lapse.

Lisa Stayton, owner of the newspaper that goes to about 6,000 homes, published despite the restraining order.

Triplett hasn't said why he wanted the newspaper's name or what he plans to do with it, but he has complained about what he considers unfair reporting by the newspaper.

Lisa Summers, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said the Mountain Citizen hadn't filed an annual report renewing the name with her agency in two years. That lapse, she said, made that name — along with others held by parent company New Wave Communications — fair game.

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Judge orders Mountain Citizen not to publish under its name
Owner of Kentucky weekly says ruling shouldn't affect newspaper because it has never included ‘Inc.’ in its published name.  05.22.02

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