Parenting woes for Huffington Post and New York Times

Washington, Nov 8: Popular news website, Huffington Post was caught on the backfoot when the New York Times Co (NYT) sued it for naming their parenting blog similar to the NYT's blog of the same nature. A case has been filed asking AOL Inc owned Huffington Post to rename the blog different from that of NYT's.

The Times reported that the law suit was filed in the US District Court in Manhattan late Friday. The report said that the blog in question was named Parentlode by Huffington Post while that of New York Times was named Motherlode. The newspaper alleged that the similar sounding names caused confusion with the readers.

Both the rival blogs are overseen by Lisa Belkin, who has been part of Times from 1982 to 2011 before shifting to the AOL in Oct. The news Huff Post blog was started on Oct 24. Both AOL and Times spokesperson refused to comment on the issue. The Times alleged that it was Belkin's clear intention to confuse readers forcing them to believe that the new blog is the same as the old one. Belkin had called the new blog a "virtual koffee klatch" for parenting.

Belkin's first blog on Parentlode blog had referred to Motherlode blog and had commented that the change in name reflected readers concern that Motherlode did not fit "in an era when fathers are every bit the parent".

OneIndia News