The Key West Citizen has an article "Attorney: Buffett didn't coin phrase"
Jimmy Buffett didn't coin the phrase "Coconut Telegraph" after all, an attorney for the singer/songwriter's Margaritaville Enterprises now says.
Buffett attorney Jeffrey Smith wrote a letter Sunday to Denise Malefyt, whose Prestige Publishing produces the 8,000 circulation Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph, recanting an earlier statement.
"We sent you a letter on April 30, 2008, regarding your company's violations of Margaritaville trademark rights. In that letter, we stated that Jimmy Buffett coined the phrase "coconut telegraph" in 1981. ... Based on your feedback and our further investigation, this information appears to be incorrect. We are therefore retracting that statement."
You can hear it on the Coconut Telegraph
Moderator: SMLCHNG
-
Burny Charles
- Spaminator
- Posts: 2557
- Joined: April 23, 2003 9:29 pm
- Number of Concerts: 0
- Location: If I knew where I was I wouldn't be here! :)
- Contact:
-
Dezdmona
- On a Salty Piece of Land
- Posts: 10637
- Joined: August 31, 2005 10:25 am
- Favorite Buffett Song: He Went To Paris
- Number of Concerts: 33
- Favorite Boat Drink: PharmAde
- Location: Defying Gravity
- Contact:
Jimmy Buffett wins 'Coconut Telegraph' Web domain
By Robert Silk
Article Tools Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Enterprises has won possession of the Internet address previously used by The Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph.
In a ruling last month, an arbitrator found that the Upper Keys dining and entertainment guide, owned by Key Largo resident Denise Malefyt, acted improperly by registering the domain name coconuttelegraphonline.com in January.
Malefyt took the address despite the fact that Buffett and Margaritaville began publishing a newsletter called The Coconut Telegraph in 1985 and trademarked the name in 1997.
Buffett's Coconut Telegraph newsletter features information about Buffett and his concert schedule as well as Buffett merchandise.
Malefyt's domain, arbitrator James A. Carmody concluded, was confusingly similar to the trademark owned by Margaritaville.
Malefyt, who did not present a defense in the domain arbitration, now posts her monthly Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph publication at a new domain, theconchtelegraph.com. Meanwhile, coconuttelegraphonline.com now features links to a variety of Florida Keys enterprises, as well as to Buffett merchandise, the Buffett fan club and the Buffett home page.
Margaritaville attorneys first wrote Malefyt in April to demand that she promptly change the name of the Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph. The letter, which included the assertion that Buffett "coined" the phrase coconut telegraph in 1981, the year he released a hit song of the same name, created a stir throughout the Florida Keys. In the Keys, "coconut telegraph" is common slang for the local rumor mill.
Buffett's attorneys later retracted that claim, but continued to press Malefyt to change the name of her monthly 8,000-circulation paper, or otherwise cease publishing.
As of the September edition, the Key Largo publisher has not complied. Nevertheless, Malefyt said she hasn't heard from Margaritaville since before the Internet domain arbitration in mid-August.
"I think that if one more person asks me about that I will scream," she wrote in an e-mail last week.
rsilk@keysnews.com
By Robert Silk
Article Tools Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Enterprises has won possession of the Internet address previously used by The Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph.
In a ruling last month, an arbitrator found that the Upper Keys dining and entertainment guide, owned by Key Largo resident Denise Malefyt, acted improperly by registering the domain name coconuttelegraphonline.com in January.
Malefyt took the address despite the fact that Buffett and Margaritaville began publishing a newsletter called The Coconut Telegraph in 1985 and trademarked the name in 1997.
Buffett's Coconut Telegraph newsletter features information about Buffett and his concert schedule as well as Buffett merchandise.
Malefyt's domain, arbitrator James A. Carmody concluded, was confusingly similar to the trademark owned by Margaritaville.
Malefyt, who did not present a defense in the domain arbitration, now posts her monthly Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph publication at a new domain, theconchtelegraph.com. Meanwhile, coconuttelegraphonline.com now features links to a variety of Florida Keys enterprises, as well as to Buffett merchandise, the Buffett fan club and the Buffett home page.
Margaritaville attorneys first wrote Malefyt in April to demand that she promptly change the name of the Conch Republic Coconut Telegraph. The letter, which included the assertion that Buffett "coined" the phrase coconut telegraph in 1981, the year he released a hit song of the same name, created a stir throughout the Florida Keys. In the Keys, "coconut telegraph" is common slang for the local rumor mill.
Buffett's attorneys later retracted that claim, but continued to press Malefyt to change the name of her monthly 8,000-circulation paper, or otherwise cease publishing.
As of the September edition, the Key Largo publisher has not complied. Nevertheless, Malefyt said she hasn't heard from Margaritaville since before the Internet domain arbitration in mid-August.
"I think that if one more person asks me about that I will scream," she wrote in an e-mail last week.
rsilk@keysnews.com
