What's In A Name? If It's Tribeca, A lot
The humble little [Tribeca Film Festival] kicked off last night, but the behind the scenes action started long ago. Back in 1995, Tribeca resident Chuck Harris bought the domain name [Tribeca.net](http://tribeca.net/home), 11 years later, he decided to use it for a short-film festival. His group, the Tribeca Network, applied for all the appropriate trademarks, as groups do in this day and age, and his low-budget operation was officially launched, allowing users to post video and other multimedia for registered visitors to view and vote on. But somewhere in between 95 and 2007, the Tribeca Film Festival was born (official birth year was 2002), and seven trademarks registrations were secured, including the Tribeca name. The climax came when the latter groups sent the former a cease-and-desist letter for trademark infringement at the end of 2006. A [federal lawsuit](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/features/e3if48e249f7c846ef96674a1ff451b949e) was filed in late January and Harris has since countersued for harassment. To find out how it all ends, stay tuned. (Shoot, now Ive gone and mixed film and TV references, damn it.)