Rival internet magazine ordered to change title

By SIMON HENDERY

Internet magazine NetGuide has won an interim injunction forcing rival Net Magazine to change its name.

Last month, NetGuide successfully applied for an ex parte High Court order stopping publisher IDG Communications distributing the second issue of Net Magazine.

NetGuide claimed the new magazine was so similar to its own publication that it was confusing shoppers and costing it sales.

Both monthly magazines have a glossy A5 format and sell for $3.50 on specially designed display racks.

After a three-day interim injunction hearing in the High Court at Auckland, Justice Robert Fisher ruled yesterday that Net Magazine would have to print a disclaimer on its cover or find a title that did not include the words "net" or "guide."

He awarded costs to NetGuide, although a figure has yet to be set.

Both parties are due back in court next month to set a timetable for a substantive hearing on the issue, although it is possible the matter could now be settled out of court.

IDG's New Zealand managing director, Martin Taylor, said a new issue of the magazine would be on bookstands soon, probably under the title Internet Magazine - a name which had been canvassed with the judge.

He said that although IDG was unhappy about having to change the name, it considered the outcome a victory for publishing freedom because NetGuide had not succeeded in forcing other changes it had sought.

NetGuide's managing director, Phil Ryan, said the company could take issue with IDG's choice of Internet Magazine as its new title.

"I'm not 100 per cent confident this will stop the confusion in the market, in which case we will inevitably end up back in court to seek a further remedy."

Mr Ryan said his four-year-old publication welcomed competition, but had taken legal action after hundreds of readers complained they had bought Net Magazine thinking it was NetGuide.