Fox News is suing the bucktoothed moron for trademark infringement. Looks like they have a pretty good case.

Franken's ''intent is clear to exploit Fox News' trademark, confuse the public as to the origins of the book and, accordingly, boost sales of the book,'' the suit said.

Calls to Penguin and Franken's publicist were not immediately returned. The book is due out next month.

[Update on Tuesday afternoon]

Eugene Volokh thinks that Fox has a weak case. And another law professor thinks it's "asinine."

Oh, well. I report, you decide.

Are you kidding? The whole Franken book cover page reeks of sarcasm which under US law is a protected use of trademarked phrases. A really blatant example of this is a scene from "Coming to America" (one of the few decent Eddie Murphy movies IMHO) where the newly-arrived hero toils away in a fast food restaurant called "MacDonald's" which looks eerily like McDonald's (eg, it has some sort of golden arches things) even to the point that the owner of the restaurant complains in one scene about trademark related law suits from a certain large fastfood company (I don't recall if "McDonalds" was mentioned by name).

Fox is giving this guy free publicity (maybe that is the intent). The only real way they could stop it is by putting profit-hurting pressure on the publisher. The legal case has no merit in itself.

This is how Franken sells books -- by leeching off the name or image of someone smarter, funnier and/or more trusted than him.

Karl, the place was called McDowells and McDonald's was mentioned by name. Not only that but a few menu items were mentioned: They have the Big Mac, we have the Big Mick... Funny you brought that up because I think it was Art Buchwald that sued that movie claiming they stole his ideas.

Fox probably has to sue or risk losing the trademark. If you don't protect your trademark from the beginning, you have no right to protect it later.

Eli has it right. Trademarks aren't like patents or copyrights. The burden of protecting trademarks falls on the holder of the mark. This means you have to be diligent about sueing or else you loose it. This often creates silly lawsuits (like the gumby.com situation) but its 'normal'. Trademark holders probably expect to loose cases like this just so they'll be sure and win the important ones latter.

Ruprect wrote: "I think it was Art Buchwald that sued that movie claiming they stole his ideas."

Sued and won.

Very interesting discussion here. Still it looks to me like such lawsuits aren't necessary to protect Fox's trademark. I think a public statement by Fox that a) Franken is using a Fox trademark in the title of his title without authorization, b) that the views of Franken don't represent Fox News in any way, and c) that it appears that Franken's misappropriation of the Fox News trademark is protected by law and hence, Fox News isn't suing at this time. How hard could that be?

Sorry about that. I just realized the obvious. Since the lawsuit will probably not cost Fox News much, it is an effective way to insert the fear of costs of lawsuits into any consideration of future publishing deals with Franken.