Fairfax & Network 10 Head To Court Over New TV Channel

Fairfax Media has taken Network 10 to court over name and logo similarities between 10 Boss and The Australian Financial Review’s monthly BOSS magazine.

B&T understands that Fairfax is seeking a temporary injunction against 10 to stop the TV network from using ‘Boss’ in the name and logo of its newly branded channel.

A Fairfax spokesperson told B&T: “We have commenced proceedings against Ten Network to protect our BOSS trade mark. BOSS is a long-held, well-established trade mark of Fairfax’s and we take our intellectual property rights seriously.”

It all started when Network 10 revealed its rebrand of channel ONE to 10 Boss at its upfronts event last month.

However, the federal government’s trademark register shows that two days after 10’s upfronts, the TV network submitted two different name and logo applications for 10 Boss – one with the original design and one with the letter ‘O’ coloured in (see below). Both applications are pending approval.

According to DeciderTV, 10 was forced to change the logo for 10 Boss after Fairfax Media complained it was too similar to the logo for The Australian Financial Review’s BOSS magazine (see below), of which the publisher owns the trademark.

Since then, 10 has submitted another trademark application for 10 Boss, this time with the channel name inside a red circle (see below).

Network 10 declined to comment when contacted by B&T.