By Alfred Branch, Jr.
Another day, another Ticketmaster legal tussle.
In a move to protect Evite.com, the online party invitation site it owns, Ticketmaster is threatening to sue upstart rival Socializr.com for allegedly using a snowflake design, among others, that too closely resemble ones on Evite.com. The two-month-old Socializr was founded by Jonathan Abrams, the guru behind Friendster.com
Ticketmaster last month came out swinging, according to published reports. In a strongly worded letter sent to Abrams, and obtained by the venture capital blog VentureBeat, Ticketmaster’s lawyers argue that Socializr breached Evite’s copyrights at least eight times and is demanding Socializr remove those items from its site. One example of similar imagery, published by social networking news site Mashable.com, shows the two snowflake designs appear to have some consistencies. . .
Abrams told Market Wire that he’s “flattered” that IAC/InterActiveCorp , the conglomerate that owns Ticketmaster and Evite, finds Socializr scary, but he’s “puzzled by these odd claims.”
Last month, Ticketmaster also sued ticketing rival StubHub! and its parent company eBay for allegedly infringing on Ticketmaster’s contracts when it began offering premier tickets to the Rowdy Frynds Tour featuring Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
