Battle of the ulu.com's: Lulu.com vs. Hulu.com

This case could surely elicit some giggles from the rhyme police. Lulu.com said Wednesday that it has filed suit against Hulu.com for trademark infringement on the grounds that the two names and business models are too similar and will create confusion in the market.

Lulu.com, a service that lets members publish, print and sell their own books, has been around for five years, according to the company. Hulu.com is a joint digital video partnership between NBC Universal and News Corp., whose corporate entity N-F Newsite announced the name last week. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in North Carolina, charges N-F Newsite with trademark infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and federal cyberpiracy.

"We have spent more than five years and tens of millions of dollars in investment successfully building the Lulu brand and website into a place for millions of creators and consumers to publish, buy, sell and manage digital content," Lulu CEO Bob Young said in a statement.

According to gossip site Valleywag, News Corp. took over the domain Hulu.com from a small family that used the site for posting family photos.

[rcrusoe]

May not be a problem

IMO, if NBC's recent decision to drop sales on iTunes is any indication of how they run their online busineses, HULU doesn't have long to live.

[fortyonejb]

the more you know (was that NBC)?

OR, the truth of the matter is that iTunes demands were unfavorable and amazon proved a better medium. Only an apple drone would see that as a poor business move. Amazon is platform independent while iTunes shoves their proprietary practices down your throat. Thats why it is just your opinion, too bad its wrong.

Now on the hulu vs. lulu debate. It seems rather silly to me. I don't see how similar they are. One is for self publishing books, and the other is for watching TV over the internet. Now if NBC named it loost I could see people getting confused. This "brand confusion" stunt by lulu is nothing more than an attempt to draw attention to their site.