Contract was mute
on OMMA
The Interactive Advertising Bureau lost its preliminary injunction bid to prevent MediaPost from using the OMMA brand name in conjunction with its magazine and trade show efforts, finding that the IAB failed to meet the very strict standards for gaining injunctive relief. The IAB and MediaPost had a falling out early this year when both parties realized in winding down their joint trade show efforts from the prior year that they had different expectations as to who owned the OMMA brand. Court documents show that the issue of brand ownership wasn't addressed by the agreements drafted in the late spring of 2004. In fact, only after the initial agreement was signed did MediaPost executives start brainstorming among themselves (see internal email next page) on what the awards program should be called.
Brainstorm came
10 days later
Several interesting lines of commentary have followed the IAB-MediaPost suit. Some have found odd the juxtaposition of the IAB ("a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to helping online, interactive broadcasting, email wireless and interactive television media companies increase their revenues," according to its CEO's personal court declaration of March 1, 2005) suing an online media company for attempting to continue to use an online awards brand it created - and now a magazine brand - to enrich itself.
MediaPost's chief Ken Fadner submitted to the court a response that contained complaints that the IAB was acting as a bully, wielding something akin to monopoly power in that it represents media sellers that, by its own count, comprise about 87 percent of online ad sales. Fadner's argument would be a stretch for the courts in this case, as the relevant market in the case at hand is in the trade show business, not online ad sales, but the accusations are nevertheless interesting. The IAB's abilities to coordinate policies among its members might indeed effectively raise online ad prices for buyers, which if done with improper collusion, may fall afoul of anti-trust rules.
While MediaPost may now continue to use the OMMA name (it had an OMMA magazine issue stuck at the printers until recently), the case will continue.
