NOTUS drops Star rebrand after settling Washington trademark dispute

NOTUS abandoned its planned Star rebrand on Thursday after settling a trademark dispute with The Washington Star Company, LLC, ending a fight that had temporarily blocked one of the most visible parts of its growth strategy. The digital publication said it would not use the Star name and would pick a different new name instead, a change that underscores how expensive naming disputes can be for news startups trying to build a broader brand in Washington.

The clash began on May 28, 2026, when The Washington Star Company filed suit in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the name change. On June 2, U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. issued a temporary restraining order that halted the rebrand while the case moved toward a preliminary-injunction hearing scheduled for July 22 in Alexandria, Virginia. The settlement removed that immediate legal threat, but it also forced NOTUS to abandon a name it had already prepared to use for its next phase.

That planned name carried more than ordinary branding weight. The Washington Star mark had been revived by Dovid Efune, the publisher of The New York Sun, who acquired the trademark in 2024 and said he intended to rebuild the brand as a rival in Washington. The original Washington Star was a long-running Washington, D.C. daily newspaper that published from 1852 until 1981, giving the mark decades of recognition in a market where legacy names still matter. The dispute drew added attention because Robert Allbritton, who founded NOTUS in 2023 after co-founding Politico, is the son of former Washington Star owner Joe Allbritton.

For NOTUS, the rebrand was tied to a wider expansion beyond its current footprint. Reporting had said the outlet planned to use The Star as part of a push into local news and sports coverage, and had been preparing to hire additional journalists as it broadened its newsroom ambitions. The settlement leaves that strategy intact, but without the name that had been chosen to carry it forward.

The outcome shows how tightly trademark law, audience memory and media legacy can collide in Washington. A revived historic name, a startup looking to scale and a court order in Virginia turned a branding decision into a public legal fight, and then into another reset. NOTUS now has to build its next chapter under a different banner.