Gatehouse Media v. New York Times

Citation: Gatehouse Media Mass., I, Inc. v. New York Times Co., Civ. Action No. 08-12114-WGY (D. Mass. Jan. 2009).

Factual Background
GateHouse Media, which operates numerous newspapers in New England and elsewhere, and associated websites, sued the New York Times claiming, among other things, that its using headlines from and links to GateHouse content on Boston.com's "Your Town" website constituted copyright and trademark infringement. The New York Times operates several local websites in the Boston area that aggregate local content from the Boston Globe, local blogs, and other newspapers' websites, including GateHouse's websites.

Trial Court Proceedings
An expert report prepared for the case, although suggesting infringement, recognized that headlines and ledes might be especially susceptible to a fair use defense because they are not paradigmatically expressive:


 * all else held equal, a court would be more willing to recognize fair use as applied to news headlines and ledes than it would be to recognize a comparable fair use defense as applied to pure fantasy or science fiction.

The case was dismissed due to a settlement. The Letter Agreement between the parties was posted here.