“A federal judge recently ruled that the owner of Entrepreneur Magazine, a small-business publication with about 2 million readers nationwide, has … ‘exclusive right to use the mark in commerce.’ … So you can call yourself an entrepreneur, but if you want to include the word in the name of your business — particularly one in publishing — look out.” This summer, the court “awarded Entrepreneur Media a permanent injunction and $669,656 in damages” against Scott Smith, who ran a public relations firm called Entrepreneur PR. The court accepted the media company’s contention that Smith intentionally infringed on the trademark, “attempting to affiliate his firm with the magazine and feed off its popularity.” (Christine Van Dusen, “‘Entrepreneur’ a trademarked word, court rules”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 20; article and court opinion at magazine site; Janet Attard, “Business Information and Ideas To Go”, BusinessKnowHow.com, undated; Smith’s response; Scott Allen, “What’s in a Name?”, About.com, undated; Steve Strauss, “Playing the Name Game”, USA Today, Jul. 10, 2002 (earlier 9th Circuit ruling favorable to Smith); Peter I. Hupalo, “Entrepreneur: The Soap Opera Continues”, Thinking Like an Entrepreneur, undated). Scott is now appealing (“What’s in a Name?”, FreshInc., Aug. 14). On Nov. 1, 2001 we covered the magazine’s efforts to enforce its trademark against a different (and unrelated) defendant, the proprietors of the website Entrepreneurs.com.
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