http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zx01jul01,0,65601.story?coll=sfla-business-front
ESPN threatens to block cable network from calling itself X Channel
By Dave Joseph and Sarah Talalay
Staff Writers
July 1, 2004
The X Channel has yet to broadcast a moment of action sports programming, but the fledgling Miami-based network is already creating controversy in the world of extreme sports.
Attorneys for cable sports network ESPN, owner of the X Games, have sent the company, which was hoping to launch its extreme sports network on Aug. 28, a warning to "cease and desist" using "The X Channel" moniker or face litigation for trademark infringement.
"The use of the designation The X Channel for a cable television channel featuring sports programming is confusingly similar to our client's well-known X Games mark," the June 25 letter states. "Such use creates the impression that ESPN sponsors, approves, or is otherwise associated with The X Channel and trades on the equity ESPN has developed for its X Games mark."
The attorneys gave The X Channel until close of business Wednesday to respond.
The X Channel CEO Victoria Davis-LaPorta said she would continue working under the same moniker.
"I don't understand why ESPN would want to do this at the 11th hour to a little company trying to come out in the market," Davis-LaPorta said Wednesday. "ESPN is a bully and we're going to fight this."
The X Channel has yet to sign a distribution deal with a cable company, but Davis-LaPorta says she's talking with several major companies and has 50 hours of programming of skateboarding, in-line skating, mountain biking and other action sports ready to broadcast.
The problem, according to ESPN, is the `X' in The X Channel. ESPN has a number of trademarks covering the X Games and its summer and winter versions of the extreme sports competitions, records show. The 10th summer X Games is scheduled in August in Los Angeles.
Josh Krulewitz, an ESPN spokesman, said the network regularly enforces its trademark as it relates to action sports. "We routinely monitor and vigorously protect our brand from infringement and encroachment," Krulewitz said. "This is clearly an infringement on the brand we've built up, that the X Games brand has built up over 10 years."
Davis-LaPorta said changing the name of The X Channel would cost several hundred thousand dollars as well as possibly delay the network's launch.
"If they want a disclosure that says we're in no way associated with the X Games or ESPN, we have no problem with that," she said. "But I don't think anyone is confusing us with ESPN or the X Games. What ESPN has is an event called the X Games. We have a 24-hour channel dedicated to extreme sports and its athletes."
Dave Joseph can be reached at djoseph@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
ESPN threatens to block cable network from calling itself X Channel
By Dave Joseph and Sarah Talalay
Staff Writers
July 1, 2004
The X Channel has yet to broadcast a moment of action sports programming, but the fledgling Miami-based network is already creating controversy in the world of extreme sports.
Attorneys for cable sports network ESPN, owner of the X Games, have sent the company, which was hoping to launch its extreme sports network on Aug. 28, a warning to "cease and desist" using "The X Channel" moniker or face litigation for trademark infringement.
"The use of the designation The X Channel for a cable television channel featuring sports programming is confusingly similar to our client's well-known X Games mark," the June 25 letter states. "Such use creates the impression that ESPN sponsors, approves, or is otherwise associated with The X Channel and trades on the equity ESPN has developed for its X Games mark."
The attorneys gave The X Channel until close of business Wednesday to respond.
The X Channel CEO Victoria Davis-LaPorta said she would continue working under the same moniker.
"I don't understand why ESPN would want to do this at the 11th hour to a little company trying to come out in the market," Davis-LaPorta said Wednesday. "ESPN is a bully and we're going to fight this."
The X Channel has yet to sign a distribution deal with a cable company, but Davis-LaPorta says she's talking with several major companies and has 50 hours of programming of skateboarding, in-line skating, mountain biking and other action sports ready to broadcast.
The problem, according to ESPN, is the `X' in The X Channel. ESPN has a number of trademarks covering the X Games and its summer and winter versions of the extreme sports competitions, records show. The 10th summer X Games is scheduled in August in Los Angeles.
Josh Krulewitz, an ESPN spokesman, said the network regularly enforces its trademark as it relates to action sports. "We routinely monitor and vigorously protect our brand from infringement and encroachment," Krulewitz said. "This is clearly an infringement on the brand we've built up, that the X Games brand has built up over 10 years."
Davis-LaPorta said changing the name of The X Channel would cost several hundred thousand dollars as well as possibly delay the network's launch.
"If they want a disclosure that says we're in no way associated with the X Games or ESPN, we have no problem with that," she said. "But I don't think anyone is confusing us with ESPN or the X Games. What ESPN has is an event called the X Games. We have a 24-hour channel dedicated to extreme sports and its athletes."
Dave Joseph can be reached at djoseph@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
