Washington Post Lawyer Says Register Will Drop Ads With Disputed Phrase

Following a trademark dispute with the Washington Post, the Orange County Register has agreed to call a halt to its current countywide advertising campaign, an attorney for the Post said Tuesday.

“We’re clarifying a few final things, but they have agreed to stop using” a disputed phrase, said Mary Ann Werner, assistant counsel for the Washington newspaper, adding that the resolution had been “amicable.”

Register officials said any agreement is still in progress. “I can’t comment until I see the response to our correspondence” with the Post, said John Schueler, executive vice president and general manager of the Register.

The Post filed last fall for trademark rights to the phrase, “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.” This spring, the Register began using the phrase, word for word, in its own advertising campaign, which was developed by Los Angeles ad agency Stein Robaire Helm.

The local ad campaign’s cost is estimated at $1 million, and the ads were scheduled to run for 33 weeks. Whether the disputed phrase was to have been part of the entire campaign is unclear.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the ads were still displayed in bus shelters and on billboards. They feature puzzled-looking people who presumably would “get it” if they bought the Register.

At the same time, the Register has canceled a long-held contract to purchase space on the tails of Orange County Transportation Authority buses, according to Frank Sandusky, regional manager of Transportation Displays Inc., who sells the space on behalf of OCTA.

Sandusky said he doesn’t think the cancellation is related to the dispute with the Washington Post. “We’ve had long-term contracts with the Register, and this isn’t the only creative (campaign) they’ve ever run,” he said.

Schueler said there has been no “cancellation” or deviation from the Register’s original plans.

Sandusky declined to place a value on the Register’s bus advertising contract.

The Orange County Fair & Expo Center, which was to have received advertising space on 100 buses from the Register in exchange for choosing the newspaper as a fair sponsor, said the cancellation leaves the fair in a bad position.

“It caught us by surprise,” said Jill Lloyd, whose advertising and public relations firm represents the fair. “We’re receiving bus shelters and mall displays instead, but we certainly don’t feel (that these are) as effective.”

The fair’s joint advertisements with the Register are scheduled to begin June 24 and run for 30 days. The Fair opens July 8.

Lloyd said the fair will buy space on the sides of about 40 buses beginning Monday, independent of its agreement with the Register.