FOCUS-Amazon fights to use New York Times list
Friday, June 4, 1999 06:01 PM
SEATTLE, June 4 (Reuters) - Amazon.com, the online book giant, is at war with another pillar of the book publishing world -- the New York Times and its vaunted bestseller list.
The New York Times Co. has demanded that Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) stop using its name in promotional materials, and Amazon said on Friday it has asked a federal court to defend its right to do so.
New York Times officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Thousands of book stores and newspapers, as well as many online sites, use the New York Times bestseller list in book-selling promotions.
But the Times took issue after Amazon sparked an online price war by saying on May 17 it would sell books on the New York Times bestseller list at a 50 percent discount.
Rivals Barnsandnoble.com -- the online stepchild of Barnes & Noble and German media group Bertelsmann AG -- launched a similar campaign, with Times as an official co-sponsor.
The bestseller list on the Barnsandnoble.com site is carried under the gothic style "New York Times" logo, while the Amazon.com site carries a standard typeface referring to the Times list, with a disclaimer saying it is not affiliated with the newspaper, which "does not endorse or sponsor" the promotion.
Amazon said it had received a letter from the New York Times saying it was infringing the Times' copyright and trademark by using the list. In a follow-up letter, the Times demanded that Amazon stop using the list in its 50 percent discount promotion, Amazon said.
Amazon has aroused the wrath of the book industry with its aggressive marketing strategies. Most recently, the American Booksellers Association, which includes thousands of local independent bookstores as members, launched its own Web site to take on Amazon.
But the most heated battle is with Barnes & Noble, the largest traditional book retailer.
Barnes (Nyse:BKS) recently spun off Barnsandnoble.com (Nasdaq:BNBN) , in which it and Bertelsmann AG each own roughly 40 percent. The joint venture is much smaller than Amazon, whose sales are expected to reach $1 billion this year, more than five times Barnsandnoble.com's sales.
Amazon, in a motion filed in U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, sought a ruling that would permit it to continue to cite New York Times bestseller lists and promote its discount.
Amazon contends that the Times bestseller list is widely used in the book selling industry as an indicator of the most popular books nationwide and buyers can easily use the list to make price comparisons on best-selling books. A search using the Inktomi service found it on more than 3,000 Web pages.
The company says its 50 percent discount is not part of a sale or short-term promotion but part of its regular pricing.
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