CNN.com wrote:NEW YORK (AP) -- A state appeals court on Thursday refused to allow Viacom to change The National Network's name to Spike TV until its dispute with Spike Lee is decided at a trial.
Lee had sought and won an injunction after telling a lower court that the name change was a deliberate attempt to hijack his name, image and reputation.
A five-judge panel of the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division rejected Viacom's request to void the lower-court ruling and let it proceed with the name change. The judges scheduled a hearing before a full appellate bench for the first week in September.
"This case is far from over," TNN spokesman Robert Pini said Thursday. "We firmly believe that we have an absolute right to use the common word 'spike' to name our network."
Lee's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, was traveling and unreachable for comment.
On June 13, state Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub granted Lee's request to stop Viacom, the nation's third-biggest media company, from changing TNN's name.
Viacom said it wanted to change TNN's name to Spike TV to try to attract more men to an audience that is already about two-thirds male.
TNN expected to lose nearly $17 million in the first week of the injunction because the network had to postpone Monday's planned name change, Clara Kim, TNN's vice president for business and legal affairs, said earlier this week in court papers.
Besides maintaining that "spike" is a common and frequently used word with many meanings, Viacom's lawyers argue that the new name doesn't necessarily prompt thoughts of Lee, whose given name is Shelton Jackson Lee. They say the filmmaker -- whose directing credits include "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X" and "25th Hour" -- is known as Spike Lee, not simply Spike.
But Lee has complained that TNN's name change would associate him with the "demeaning, vapid and quasi-pornographic content of Spike TV."
Among the network's planned fare: "Stripperella," an animated series featuring Pamela Anderson as the voice of an undercover operative who is also a stripper.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/2 ... index.html
