Who Has A Trademark On The Phrase 'TOLDJA!' One Hint: It's Not Nikki Finke

Hollywood-based reporter Nikki Finke has a distinctive style of reporting, but perhaps her best known stylistic writing quirk is her fondness for using the word "TOLDJA" in the headlines of stories she claims to have broken first. It's a semi-lovable combination of arrogance and insecurity, but it's become a punchline for any story written about her.

After weeks of public feuding, Finki has apparently exited/been booted from Deadline.com, a web site she originally founded. Finke has complained owner PMC and Jay Penske have failed to provide the resources she has requested, while Penske and Finke's former Deadline colleagues have implied she impossible to work with and unwilling to be a team player.

Now Finke is free to do her own site again and in an interview with Gawker she implied she walked away from a lot of money to get independence from Penske:

Apparently the protracted legal battle, which Finke alleges was all one-sided from Penske, got so messy at one point that she almost gave up blogging entirely. "There was a point I even volunteered to leave online journalism together just to get free, and this way, this is the best of all outcomes."

But while Finke has her freedom, she may not have the rights to her catchphrase "TOLDJA." As Vulture's Joe Adalien noted on Twitter Tuesday evening, the phrase was trademarked by Penske's Deadline Business Media Inc. in 2011:

Ah, so: Per @Fake_NikkiFinke, Penske holds copyright of "TOLDJA!": http://t.co/QgbO5gVA3O

— Joe Adalian (@TVMoJoe) November 6, 2013

Penske certainly could have agreed to assign the trademark over to Finke in whatever settlement they've worked out. But given the apparent level of animus between the two sides, Penske's Deadline Inc. might just keep it as a way to further annoy Finke.

I've reached out to both sides in an effort to get some clarification on the status of this and will update the story as details come in.

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