Rising Women in Deep Sand

For the past year Miami Herald staffer Donna Gehrke has been developing a new magazine, one that would focus attention on the contributions made by women from the Florida Keys to Palm Beach County. "We really want to be a special voice for women in South Florida," says Gehrke, a...
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For the past year Miami Herald staffer Donna Gehrke has been developing a new magazine, one that would focus attention on the contributions made by women from the Florida Keys to Palm Beach County. “We really want to be a special voice for women in South Florida,” says Gehrke, a 37-year-old general assignment reporter for the Herald. “We feel there is nothing out there right now that celebrates the achievements made by women.” Titled South Florida’s Rising Women, Gehrke’s magazine is slated to debut in October with 64 pages printed in color on glossy stock, and with a circulation of about 10,000.

Gehrke, who is keeping her full-time job at the Herald, has devoted every free moment she can muster to assembling a small staff, developing a prototype issue, and spreading the word to interested investors and advertisers. “It’s a lot of work,” says the soon-to-be publisher, “but in some ways it’s been easier than some people said it was going to be.”

At least until recently, when Gehrke received a certified letter from an attorney named William Kramer.

“It has recently come to my client’s attention that you and certain other individuals (which include, without limitation, Bea L. Hines, Denise Torres, Ann Machado, Marlene Williams, and Christine Kurtz-White) intend to start a publication entitled South Florida’s Rising Women,” Kramer wrote. “That title, or any similar use, will constitute a direct infringement on my client’s federally registered trademark, South Florida. Demand is hereby made that you immediately take all steps necessary to refrain from such publication and make no attempt whatsoever for the sale of advertising in a publication with that name. Your infringement of my client’s trademark, with knowledge of infringement, will subject you and anyone else directly involved with you, to liability for substantial damages in addition to injunctive relief.”

“We are protecting our trademark,” confirms Nancy Moore, publisher of South Florida, a general-interest monthly based in Miami. “The name ‘South Florida’ is ours.” The publisher contends that Gehrke’s venture “could easily confuse the public, and our readers in particular.”

The conflict has Gehrke baffled. “We don’t understand what their concerns are,” she says. “We meant ‘South Florida’ as a geographic location. Look in the phone book, there are two pages of companies that have ‘South Florida’ in their names!”

Though she has met with several attorneys to assess her options, Gehrke says she isn’t yet sure how she’ll proceed. “It’s distracted us somewhat,” she laments. “We want to get along with South Florida magazine; we just wish they might have called us first. How would you feel if all of a sudden you get this letter? I’m a very nice person.”

Nice likely won’t be the main issue if the matter goes to court. Elio Martinez, a veteran local trademark attorney who has no connection to the case, says federal trademark laws are designed “to protect the purchasing public,” to make sure consumers are not fooled into thinking they are buying a product from one company when in fact they’re buying it from another. The central question in this case: Would readers and advertisers mistakenly believe that South Florida’s Rising Women magazine was somehow related to South Florida magazine?

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“The key element in any trademark decision is confusion,” Martinez explains. “The purpose of trademarks is to avoid confusion.”

In her presentations to women’s groups and potential advertisers, Gehrke says, no one has confused the two publications. Her most pressing concern, though is money. As Martinez notes, “Federal litigation is not cheap. [Attorney’s fees and other costs] can go anywhere from $20,000 to significantly higher than that.”

“For a small publication like ours, having to spend money on an attorney could ruin us,” Gehrke says. But a name change would prove costly as well: New stationery and press kits would have to be purchased, a new logo would have to be designed, a new prototype created. Besides, Gehrke adds, she always liked the name South Florida’s Rising Women.

But she promises that in a few months, under some name, women in South Florida will have a magazine dedicated to their interests and highlighting their accomplishments. “Maybe we can call it Rising Women of South Florida,” she muses. “Who knows?

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