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Skirt! sues Pink magazine over alleged similarities

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It's a legal battle filled with exclamation points. Local women's magazine Pink is being sued by competitor Skirt!

The lawsuit, which was filed last week with a federal district court in Beaufort County, alleges that Pink, which started publication in 2004, has mimicked elements of Skirt!, including the size of the publication, the feel of the paper, the style of artwork on the cover, style of type and text -- and the use of an exclamation point in the title -- among other things. For the record, Pink says it dropped the exclamation point about nine months ago.

The suit seeks to stop Millen Publishing Group, which creates Pink, from publishing the monthly magazine. The suit also seeks legal fees, lost profits and punitive damages.

Karen Randall, director of corporate communications for Skirt! magazine's owner, Morris Publishing Group, said the company had no further comment on the lawsuit.

"The lawsuit speaks for itself," Randall said.

Dana Millen, Pink vice president of business operations and owner of Millen Publishing Group, said, like many magazines serving the same market, there are similarities between Pink and Skirt!

"They're similar, yet not similar," Millen said. "Like Cosmopolitan is similar to Vogue."

When Pink began publication it filled a need in the market, said Millen, whose wife, Elizabeth Millen, founded the magazine.

"She saw an opportunity," Millen said. "She was not aware of Skirt! magazine. It wasn't in the market. There were no women's magazines in the market."

Pink is available for free on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton and Beaufort, Millen said.

The lawsuit contends that Millen Publishing was aware of and familiar with Skirt! and intentionally designed and published Pink to capitalize on that.

The suit says Pink was created in such a way as to have "a free ride on the reputation and goodwill of ... Skirt! magazine."

The suit also says that those similarities may cause confusion for customers, leading them to think there's a connection between the publications.

Skirt!, also a free monthly magazine for women, was created in 1994 in the Charleston and Columbia areas. Since then, it has expanded to Atlanta, Charlotte, Augusta, Savannah and Jacksonville.

The Savannah edition has offices in that city, but the magazine also is available in Bluffton and Beaufort and on Hilton Head.

Pink founder and publisher Elizabeth Millen said her magazine has tried to further distinguish its product since Morris Publishing began complaints.

During a redesign of the magazine in April for its two-year anniversary, Pink dropped the exclamation point from the title, changed its size and changed its tagline to cooperate partly with the cease and desist letters the magazine had been receiving from Morris, said Elizabeth Millen.

"We were going to try to honor what we felt was reasonable even though we did not copy them in any way," Elizabeth Millen said.

That the lawsuit includes alleged infractions that no longer exist in Pink shows that Morris knows little about the Millen Publishing's magazine, she said.

"It appears to be sheer bullying and harassment at this point," Elizabeth Millen said.

Contact Jim Faber at 706-8137 or .

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