One of the more bizarre legal actions has been launched by the publisher of once counter-cultural New York weekly The Village Voice. It is claiming to own exclusive use to the phrase "best of."
It has sued the user review site Yelp for daring to post a page headlined "the best of San Francisco" and nine similar pages relating to cities such as Seattle, Miami and Dallas.
Voice Media Group maintains that it owns the "best of" trademark and is seeking "triple damages" from Yelp.
Evidently, this isn't the Voice's first attempt to assert what it regards as its "intellectual property." Last year, it sued the New York edition of Time Out magazine over its annual "best of NYC" issue. Time Out counter-sued, arguing the term "best of" is generic. Exactly.
Source: paidContent