IAB Accuses MediaPost of Misusing Mark
Suit filed after parties end cooperative pact and pursue own shows
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 3/7/2005
Just months ago, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and MediaPost merged their annual events into the co-produced Interactive Advertising World Conference & Expo. Now, the two parties are engaged in a fierce trademark dispute and back to producing their own shows again.
The IAB, a trade association for the interactive advertising industry, has filed suit against publisher MediaPost, charging it with unauthorized use of the Online Media Marketing and Advertising trademark. The U.S. District Court suit, filed Feb. 18 in the Southern District of New York, alleges that MediaPost affiliate Fadner Media Enterprises has filed an application to register the trademark solely in its name.
According to the IAB, the two entities created the OMMA trademark for an awards program to accompany Interactive Advertising World. MediaPost contends that its Publisher Ken Fadner created the trademark and only lent it to the awards show, intending it for later use as the name for an event, magazine and another awards show.
"We think this lawsuit is silly. This is a name that we created. It was an awards show that we already had in the process," said Nick Friese, MediaPost vice president of sales and marketing, adding that there was never any written agreement over use of the OMMA name.
IAB spokeswoman Cathy Callegari disputed MediaPost's contention that there wasn't an agreement covering the trademark. "If that was the case, we wouldn't be going to court over it," she said. "There was a written agreement."
Callegari added that the IAB filed suit after failed attempts to dissuade MediaPost from using the OMMA trademark. Greg Stuart, IAB president and CEO, declined comment on advice from attorneys.
It was last July when the two entities decided to merge their annual shows, MediaPost's 5-year-old Forecast and the bureau's IAB Advertisers Forum. The result, Interactive Advertising World, drew about 2,000 attendees and more than two dozen sponsors to New York's Millennium Hotel last Sept. 20–21.
Friese said by most accounts the launch was a success. "We had a terrific event. We had a successful OMMA awards and, in the post-mortem, Greg Stuart decided he wanted to go his own way. He wanted to take the show for himself," Friese charged.
Callegari wouldn't elaborate on why the partnership dissolved, only saying that the IAB chose not to repeat Interactive Advertising World "for business reasons."
In the meantime, IAB has teamed up with VNU's Adweek magazines to produce another event: the MIXX Conference, Expo & Awards Show at the Millennium Hotel in the same late-September time period as the defunct Interactive Advertising World.
The event-production agreement with Adweek is the IAB's third such agreement in as many years. In 2002, the IAB teamed up to organize a pre-conference day at Jupitermedia's Internet Advertising Forum. Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler said that rather than just providing sessions for its members, the IAB attempted to compete with Jupitermedia. "I was just absolutely incensed. Really what happened was they used us," he said.
In his blog on the Jupitermedia Web site, Meckler calls the IAB a "supposedly nonprofit organization (that is run like a for-profit company)."
Meanwhile, MediaPost is planning to produce two OMMA events this year. OMMA West is set for June 6–7 at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, while OMMA East is scheduled for Sept. 27–28 at New York's Marriott Marquis. Friese said the OMMA events are each projected to draw 5,000 attendees and 200 exhibitors.
Claiming MediaPost plans to file a suit alleging anti-competitive behavior, Friese charged that the IAB is merely trying to eliminate a competitor to make itself the interactive advertising industry's pre-eminent event producer.
"It's still a gold rush out there. Clearly, the IAB has an agenda here and that's to attempt to slow our momentum down," he said.
Callegari said the IAB doesn't object to MediaPost running a competing show, providing that it doesn't use the OMMA trademark. "We have no problem with them doing any event at any time. But it's caused confusion in the marketplace. If they change the name, they still can do their conference," she said.
Callegari pointed out that the IAB changed the name of the awards program for its new event. "We were in the same boat. We could have used OMMA for our event this year. But we created a whole new name."
The IAB and MediaPost also have company in the fast-growing interactive advertising space in the form of JD Events' AD:TECH, which was recently sold to dmg world media.
