[IMC-Tech] Re: [Imc-staff] New York Times Syndicate--trademark infringement

[Mike Lehman]

Mr. Wren,
If you desire any further consideration of this issue by us, you need to 
provide something substantive for us to consider. As Wendy noted, there 
is absolutely no mention of the New Your Times Syndicate or any 
misrepresentation by Ivany on the page you cited that involves the NYTS.

Thus it appears that your complaint has no basis. Are you simply 
pursuing a vendetta of some sort against Ivany? If so, we are not 
interested in being involved in it.

In the absence of any further evidence that this or any other post we 
have control over provides a basis for you to have a complaint about it, 
we intend to consider this case closed. We would be happy to reconsider 
the issue if you can provide any evidence that Ivany misrepresented his 
relation to the NYTS, but what you have offered so far simply doesn't 
meet anyone's legal standard or basis for us to take the actions you 
request.
Mike Lehman

Wendy Edwards wrote:

> I pulled up the URL in question.  It did contain one reference to
> "John Shelton Ivany Top Twenty-One, published in 200 national 
> newspapers," but had you read the page, you might have noticed that
> there was no mention whatsoever of the New York Times.  It might
> also have been apparent that this was simply an automatically 
> generated archive from one of the UCIMC mailing lists.
> 
> Wendy Edwards
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 23, 2005 at 09:12:35AM -0500, Gayden Wren/CORPHQ/NYTIMES wrote:
> 
>>                                          23 December 2005
>>
>>Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
>>202 South Broadway, Room 100
>>Urbana, Illinois    61803
>>
>>To whom it may concern:
>>
>>        We have made numerous attempts, thus far without result, to obtain
>>your assistance in correcting an egregious error on an IMC-related Web page
>>which includes a citation of ???the John Shelton Ivany Top Twenty-One,
>>published in 200 national newspapers.???  The URL in question is:
>>lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/imc-events/2002-February.txt.
>>        I initially communicated with you by telephone in reference to this
>>matter on 4 February 2005, and was told  that the misinformation would be
>>corrected if I would send an e-mail explaining the problem to
>>mailman at lists.chambana.net, copied to imc-web at ucimc.org and
>>imc-staff at ucimc.org.  I did so, but the material was not removed.
>>Subsequent telephone messages left at (217) 344-8820 on 28 March 2005, 13
>>July 2005 and 22 November 2005 have not been returned.
>>
>>      As I said in our previous letter, Mr. Ivany is a hoaxster who during
>>2002 and 2003 misrepresented himself as a writer for The New York Times
>>Syndicate.  In reality he is not now and never has been a writer or other
>>employee of The New York Times, The New York Times Syndicate or any related
>>company.  We have never syndicated or otherwise distributed anything
>>written by Mr. Ivany, and indeed do not syndicate record reviews by anyone
>>in any form.
>>      Furthermore, so far as we can determine, ???The John Shelton Ivany Top
>>21??? does not appear in any newspaper anywhere, and never has.  Nor is he
>>affiliated with AOL Music Channel, ASCAP, BMI, Hardrock.com, spinner.com,
>>TowerRecords.com or United Press International, as he also has claimed in
>>the past.
>>
>>      Our legal department has contacted Mr. Ivany, and has obtained
>>certain assurances that will prevent any future misrepresentation on his
>>part.
>>      Your involvement is presumably based on material provided by Charlie
>>King, who at the time believed in good faith that Mr. Ivany was who he said
>>he was.  At our request, Mr. King has subsequently removed all references
>>to Mr. Ivany from his publicity materials.
>>      The IMC no doubt distributed the material in good faith, unaware that
>>it contained incorrect information which tended to corroborate a fraudulent
>>claim, and submitted it to the Web site in question in good faith.  We
>>believe your involvement to be inadvertent, without intent to support any
>>infringement upon the trademark of The New York Times Syndicate and related
>>companies.
>>      Nonetheless, your failure to act to correct this error, despite
>>repeated requests that you do so, represents potential and actual damage to
>>The New York Times Syndicate and related companies.  We take such matters
>>seriously, and must ask that you immediately remove, or cause to be
>>removed, from this site (and any and all others that may be relevant) any
>>references to Mr. Ivany which would tend to support his past fraud in
>>connection with The New York Times Syndicate, The New York Times or any
>>related company.
>>
>>      I can be reached at  (212) 499-3329, and would be happy to provide
>>any other information that you may require.
>>
>>                                    Sincerely,
>>
>>                                    Gayden Wren, Senior Editor
>>                                    The New York Times Syndicate
>>                                    609 Greenwich Street
>>                                    New York, New York   10014-3610
>>_______________________________________________
>>Imc-staff mailing list
>>Imc-staff at lists.ucimc.org
>>http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/imc-staff
> 
> 
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