Mood:  on fire

Doors might have been slamming in a remarkable chain of events in a name dispute taking place over the past few weeks or so in Finlands lively mediaworld.

The word 'Ovi', meaning 'Door' in English, has become contested by 2 different parties after an announcement was made that a Finnish free newspaper will be first published under the name 'Ovi' from October 2006 onwards.

The online English magazine 'Ovi Magazine' now has an online call for content for their next issue in which they announce their theme of the month: 'Copycat'.

This has all the signs of a classic namedispute.

The Bad Boys over at Ovi Magazine are clearly 'not pleased' with the publication of a finnish magazine under a similar name as the one they are using for their online publication, allbeit in English, in Finland, on the internet.

But is it all Bad News for the Bad Boys? Perhaps not, but it depends on how and if you are looking at it.

I strongly believe that 'you can't fake the original'. Simply because it is, well, the original. Then there is another saying that goes like: 'imitation is the highest form of flattery'.

So is there a way that both parties can gain from this situation? Perhaps there is.

First of all, if the finnish Ovi is a free paper newspaper, it will run on advertisements to earn the ink it's printed with and the paper it is printed on. Somebody has to pay for that. .

So wouldn't it be a great idea to advertise in it to increase visibility of the online english publication ovi magazine and support the effort in celebration of 'The Ovi', 'Ovi Magazine' or 'Ovi'? So many doors, so many options!

If the Bad Boys might not like the idea of paying money to the finnish Ovi to advertise, then maybe the Finnish Ovi could advertise on the English Ovi Magazine.

Secondly, when typing 'in the word Ovi' into Google, one sees that Ovi magazine lists 2nd out of millions of results. So that, as it now stands, would indicate that whomever looks for 'Ovi', is likely to end up on 'Ovi Magazine' online one way or another.

Wasn't it the Doors singing 'Break on through to the other side'?

Go figure!

You may use Helsinki Times content according to the Creative Commons Liscence under which Helsinki Times is published.

You can find this liscensing agreement at the bottom of the left side navigation bar on the Helsinki Times website.