Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a trademark claim for the names "Three News" and "ThreeNews" in the wake of the decision to shut down Newshub in July and the day before it was announced media company Stuff would take over the production of the post-Newshub 6pm news bulletin.
In a Tweet from NZMediaNews on Tuesday night, it was claimed the company had lodged the trademark with the New Zealand Intellectual Properties Office on Monday, April 15.
That would have been one day before the Stuff deal was publicly announced and just hours before Newshub staff were summoned in an email to an "important business update" meeting on Tuesday, April 16.
In that meeting, staff were told that following the closure of Newshub on Friday, July 5, Stuff would take over the production of the nightly 6pm news bulletin from Saturday, July 6.
Under the deal, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will keep the ad revenue and pay Stuff for the content.
"On April 15th, Warner Bros Discovery applied to register 'Three News' as a trademark with the NZ Intellectual Property Office. This move hints that 'Three News' might be the chosen name for the upcoming bulletin produced by Stuff," NZMediaNews claimed.
A search of trademarks on the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office website showed the names 'ThreeNews' and 'Three News' were marked as "Under investigation" and covered a range of services that included Education, entertainment, sporting and cultural activities; news and current affairs programmes.
The Newshub brand was first launched in February 2016 replacing the name 3 News.
In an all-hands staff meeting with staff members last Wednesday, Stuff company owner Sinead Boucher confirmed the new bulletin would not be named Newshub, signalling the end of the award-winning brand after eight years.
In a short statement supplied to Newshub, a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said they "can confirm that Three News is one of the names being considered for the new bulletin."
