Student Journalists Plan Legal Battle for Newspaper’s Name

David Sussin arrived at the South Bay Union High School District Board of Education meeting last week with one hope in mind.

The 18-year-old editor of High Tide, the Redondo Union High School student newspaper, wanted approval from the trustees to hire an attorney at no cost to the district.

Sussin got the approval, but by the time he left the board meeting, he also had in his back pocket an unexpected pledge for $500 and the enthusiastic support of the five-member school board.

Sussin and his fellow journalism students want to take to court a new community newspaper in Manhattan Beach that began publishing last month under the same name as their newspaper. The students say the Manhattan Beach High Tide has stolen their paper’s name, 67 years of tradition at the high school and potentially thousands of dollars in advertising revenue.

The student journalists want the Manhattan Beach newspaper to change its name--something the twice-a-month paper has been unwilling to do--or to cease publishing. Owners of the Manhattan Beach paper, which does not circulate in Redondo Beach, have said that their paper has a different audience and that readers and advertisers do not confuse the two papers.

At the board meeting Wednesday night, Sussin told the trustees that the student newspaper staff had agreed to raise the money to hire an attorney--he estimated that they would need $150 to start--and that all he needed was the board’s blessing.

“We are prepared to hire an attorney, send a letter to the other High Tide informing them of our intentions and the many statutes that support them,” Sussin told the board. “Since neither party wants an injunction, this letter will hopefully cause an agreement . . . and we can end this thing.”

The trustees, who had heard from Sussin about the High Tide problem two weeks earlier, rallied to the defense of the student newspaper, agreeing to allocate $500 “as a starter” for legal fees and congratulating Sussin for his determination in preparing a case against the Manhattan Beach paper.

The board directed Supt. Walter Hale to attempt to resolve the problem with the owners of the Manhattan Beach newspaper without going to court, but said he should hire an attorney and go ahead with legal action if that effort fails.

“What’s happened here is wrong,” said Trustee Noel Palm. “I think we have to be prepared to go to the hilt.”

Added Board President Josh Fredricks, who proposed the $500 allocation: “I think that this is pretty outrageous what these people over in Manhattan are doing.”

Sussin and newspaper adviser Margaret Lee, who prepared a memorandum on the problem for the board, said attorneys have told them that the high school has the legal right to be the sole user of the name High Tide in the South Bay even though the high school has not registered the name. The Manhattan Beach paper registered the name as a trademark in January, according to Jill Gottesman, executive editor of that paper.

Sussin cited three sections of the California Business and Professions Code to support his argument that state law gives more protection to the “prior appropriator” of a name than it gives to a business that registers the name.

Gottesman, who contacted an attorney after the board decision Wednesday night, said Thursday that she has been advised not to talk about any legal defense her newspaper may present if the issue ends up in court.

“We are considering options,” Gottesman said. “We want the end result to be a benefit to both our newspaper and Redondo High School. We want to do the right thing.”

Gottesman said, however, that “it is safe to say our next issue will be named High Tide.” She said the paper has made no decision about its name beyond that issue, to be published Thursday.