Publisher of Hamptons Magazine Sued for Trademark Infringement

One magazine publisher has tabloid diva Jennifer Lopez on its board of advisers; the other has Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. There are some obvious differences between Niche Media, which publishes Hamptons Magazine, and MassINC, a nonprofit think tank that produces a periodical about ”Politics, Ideas and Civic Life in Massachusetts.”

But, one thing they share is a name — at least for now.

MassINC publishes the policy magazine CommonWealth four times a year and now Niche Media plans to launch a quarterly publication called Boston Commonwealth in September.
That’s why MassINC is suing Niche Media for trademark infringement. After several tentative efforts to resolve their differences peaceably, the two publishers now seem to be ready to fight it out in the legal arena.

”We spent nine years building up a reputation for serious journalism on public policy,” says the CommonWealth publisher, Ian Bowles. ”We don’t want our name associated with celebrity-watching and high-society parties.”

Niche Media’s publisher, Jason Binn, who describes Boston Commonwealth as a ”luxury lifestyle magazine,” says that the name is appropriate.

Read More: Boston.com