Quebecor takes satirical website Journal de Mourreal to court over trademark infringement
Posted April 1, 2019 11:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL — Quebecor is taking a satirical online publication that closely resembles its daily Journal de Montreal to court, arguing trademark infringement.
A lawyer representing Media QMI, the subsidiary of the media conglomerate that publishes the tabloid, is accusing the Journal de Mourreal satirical site of imitating the paper’s design in an effort to drum up online revenues.
Lawyer Marek Nitoslawski argued today the satirical site appropriated and deformed the newspaper’s trademarked look.
The logo and the website address of the Journal de Mourreal are identical to the Journal de Montreal, with the exception of the two letters to change “Montreal” to “Mourreal.”
To support his argument, Nitoslawski entered evidence showing the satirical site modified its own logo to match the appearance of the Montreal tabloid just two days after the paper redesigned its look on Oct. 1, 2013.
Quebecor’s lawyer maintains it is a case not of freedom of expression, as satirical site co-founder Janick Murray-Hall has argued, but of trademark infringement.
The court has set aside six days to hear the matter before Quebec Superior Court Justice Micheline Perrault.
The Canadian Press
