@NYTOnIt Twitter Feed Has a New, Non-Trademark Infringing Avatar [Updated]

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:20:39 -0400

Yesterday, we woke up to the news that, at the request of The New York Times, Twitter had suspended @NYTOnIt, a parody account that lawyer Benjamin Kabak started to mock the most obvious trend stories in the paper of record. The Times’s request was not due to a lack of humor on the part of style section staffers. On the contrary, Times sources tell us that many in the newsroom enjoyed the Twitter feed and were (usually) flattered to find their own stories included for gentle mockery.

But the Twitter feed's avatar was The New York Times’s 'T'--in the paper's signature font. And that, Twitter and the Times agreed, was trademark infringement. Twitter reinstated the account later yesterday, but only on the condition that Mr. Kabak change his avatar.Mr. Kabak emailed us to clarify. The contest is still ongoing, but in the meantime, he has decided to add a beret to the Twitter avatar."The contest is still going strong, but for now, I took the old beret that used to be The Times' T and added it to Twitter's egg instead," Mr. Kabak wrote. "Hopefully, I'll have something better up there in a few days."

We look forward to seeing what avatar Mr. Kabak decides on, but in the meantime, we are just glad that the Twitter feed is back.

"Because," as it says in the Twitter bio, "sometimes stories in newspapers are just *that* obvious."

Observer » @NYTOnIt Twitter Feed Has a New, Non-Trademark Infringing Avatar [Updated]

@NYTOnIt Twitter Feed Has a New, Non-Trademark Infringing Avatar [Updated]