(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Clear Channel Communications has settled its lawsuit with RadioAid.com regarding the website ClearChannelSucks.net. CCC had sued the Austin, Texas-based company, claiming trademark infringement, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The owner of the two websites, Rob Vining, an Austin physical therapist, said he filed a federal lawsuit last summer against CCC after the ClearChannelSucks.net site was given to CCC in arbitration.
Vining’s other site, RadioAid.com, which serves as an internet radio station, promotes itself as an alternative to FM-style radio. In the settlement, RadioAid.com gets to keep the anti-CCC site, but must keep it separate from RadioAid.com and may not have any advertising or sponsorship on it.
The agreement also states that the owner may not transfer the site to any other entity.
Clear Channel said in its arbitration case that ClearChannelSucks.net was too similar to its name and that “RadioAid was trying to wrap itself in the First Amendment typically associated with ‘protest’ sites, when its site is simply directed to services offered” by RadioAid.com.
Vining told the paper, “They had a problem of us using their name and possibly making money off of it…They said our Web site didn’t have enough negative content to be used as a gripe site.”
In perhaps the opposite scenario than what CCC had hoped for, Vining plans to seek more negative stories in order to make ClearChannelSucks.net function as a gripe site. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
