Ion Media Networks received a setback this week in a trademark dispute it has waged since April with San Pedro, Calif.-based Positive Ions Inc.
Positive Ions, which sued Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications) in April, said that on Sept. 10, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board entered a decision against Ion Media Networks.
Ion Media had applied for the trademark “iON” in connection with certain uses, including “television broadcasting” and “distribution of cable television services – an application that was opposed by Positive Ions.
Although Ion Media subsequently abandoned the application, Positive Ions said it did not seek its consent to abandon during the dispute, so the TTAB entered the judgment against Ion Media.
Ion Media downplayed the Sept. 10 decision.
“In July 2007, Ion Media voluntarily abandoned its pending trademark applications for a number of marks that it has not used including ‘iON, ‘ with its unique capitalization,” the company said in a statement. “The judgment entered by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on September 10, 2007, is the ordinary and routine procedure by which ION Media's voluntary abandonment of these marks was processed.”
Separately, Positive Ions has filed a trademark infringement suit against Ion Media. The trial for that case is scheduled to begin Nov. 13, in Federal court in Los Angeles.
