Purportedly to avoid a legal tussle with national broadsheet The Straits Times, the owner of new website Straits Times Review has since last night changed it’s name to States Times Review.
The website and Facebook page handle currently both reflect the name change, although the URL for its Facebook page remains unchanged.
STR’s Facebook page currently has about 8,000 likes.
Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which owns The Straits Times, has earlier expressed that it is considering legal action against the website for copyright infringement.
Owner of STR Alex Tan, who is known to be a former editor of The real Singapore, has posted on the website’s Facebook page that he has changed the name to “avoid legal confrontations with The Straits Times”.
The post also ended with a quote from the movie, The Dark Knight: “It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.”
Tan has earlier posted a challenge to SPH, indicating that he has applied for Trademark registration for “Straits Times Review”.
Tan has also claimed that the website has earlier encountered problems with its server due to high traffic.
Media reports indicated that “SPH informed (Tan) that the company has ‘trademark rights, goodwill and other related legal rights’ in the name ‘The Straits Times’ and that it did not agree the term ‘Straits Times’ was ‘general and open for public naming’.”
SPH also indicated that Malaysia’s New Straits Times had historical links with The Straits Times in the past and “they are using their name by agreement”.
SPH has also insisted that Tan changes the name of the website and Facebook page, including the links, and to refrain from using such trade marks again, or risk trademark infringement.
