Anderson's Business Law and the Legal Environment 20th Edition by David Twomey,Marianne Jennings

Exercise 13

Village Voice Media, owners of the famous Village Voice newspaper in New York City, sent a letter to The Cape Cod Voice, a year-old publication located in Orleans, Massachusetts, objecting to the use of the word Voice in the title of its publication. It warned that the Cape Cod publication could cause "confusion as to the source affiliation with the famous Village Voice marks." The publisher of The Cape Cod Voice responded that "small places have a right to their own voices." The use of the word Voice was thus in dispute between these parties. Would you classify it as generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, or fanciful? How would you resolve this controversy? [Cape Cod Times Business Section, Amy Zipkin, The New York Times, October 16, 2004, G-1].