Swerve, a publication for Winnipeg’s queer community has been re-branded OutWords after CanWest Media Works registered a trademark on its name.
CanWest’s Calgary Herald launched an entertainment section it called Swerve in 2004 for which it registered a trademark.
Even though the original, queer Swerve has been publishing regularly since November of 1994, it didn’t register a trademark on its own name.
OutWords chair Peter Carlyle-Gordge says the not-for-profit group decided to settle with CanWest and agree to change its name rather than waste precious resources on a long and expensive fight against a fabulously wealthy and powerful media empire.
“We just decided we were wasting too much time and energy,” he says. “Let’s just move on. It’s a closed chapter. We’re satisfied but we can’t talk about the agreement.”
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