US radio ratings giant Arbitron has filed a lawsuit against Gannett-owned WKYC-TV/Cleveland, claiming up to $6.3m for unauthorised use of its audience estimates and trademarks.

According to the suit, WKYC-TV ran an ad campaign on webcaster Pandora, in which it stated that data involving Pandora audience listening estimates had been generated by Arbitron. The webcaster had partnered with WKYC-TV to offer the online audio service as part of TV sales packages.

Arbitron says that WKYC-TV has ‘willfully and intentionally’ infringed its copyrights by copying and distributing copyrighted average quarter hour audience estimates obtained from the Arbitron reports and databases without authorization.

In addition, the station is said to have infringed trademarks by using the Arbitron Marks in its promotional activities. ‘WKYC has falsely represented that certain audience estimates were produced by Arbitron when, in fact, those audience estimates were not produced by Arbitron, causing confusion in the minds of the public,’ the ratings firm added in a statement.

Arbitron has asked for at least $150k for each act of infringement, which would total $6.3m plus legal fees.

Web site: www.arbitron.com .

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