'NYT' to 'WSJ': Stop Using Our Slogan!

You know things are heating up between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal when they start fighting over slogans.

New York Times Co. attorneys have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Journal, demanding that it stop using the advertising slogan "NOT Just Wall Street. Every Street." The Times claims it has a trademark pending on that slogan, and says it did not grant the Journal permission to use it.

The alleged infraction was included in an advertisement in the Journal’s May 26 edition.

"While we are flattered by your admiration of our marketing efforts, please note that The Times owns the trademark rights in the Slogan and your brazen appropriation of our intellectual property rights constitutes a willful infringement and dilution of the Times's rights under the Lanham Act," the letter reads. It goes on to say that if the Journal doesn't cease using the slogan, it will "pursue all legal remedies."

A Journal spokeswoman told WSJ.com that the ad was published once in the Journal, once in the New York Post — which is also owned by News Corp. — and periodically on the Journal's Website. 

The Times and the Journal have been jibing at each other since the latter paper’s April launch of a section exclusively devoted to New York-area news.