TriBeCaCoOpTedByDeNiRo

Travis Bickle’s goons are claiming that they have the exclusive right to use the word “Tribeca” in association with entertainment-related goods and services:

Tribeca: The term coined to describe the triangle-shaped neighborhood below Canal St. has morphed in recent years, becoming a veritable brand name to signify all that is hip, artsy and quintessentially New York. The name has been slapped on a Subaru S.U.V. model and a line of high-end Lenox dinnerware sold by Bed Bath & Beyond.

But if Robert DeNiro gets his way in a federal lawsuit filed Jan. 29, the name Tribeca (at least where entertainment is concerned) will mean only one thing — the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Film Fest and its associated companies have filed suit against the grassroots Web site Tribeca.net and its founder, Chuck Harris, a 34-year resident of the neighborhood. The suit claims that Harris’ cyberspace-based arts organization, Tribeca Network, infringes on the Film Festival’s intellectual property rights because it uses the name Tribeca — a component of several Film Festival trademarks — in conjunction with “entertainment related goods and services.”

Those goods and services include a series of free “channels” where users can post videos, art and writing; a Web-based radio station called Radio Free Tribeca; and a virtual store that offers a smattering of Tribeca Network merchandise. DeNiro’s lawyers have demanded that Harris turn over his domain names to the Film Festival and provide an accounting of all his site’s revenues.

“From their lips to god’s ears,” Harris said of the demand for revenue documents. “We have yet to bring in our first penny. We haven’t even sold a t-shirt.”

Hey Johnny Boy, what about the Tribeca Performing Arts Center? Tribeca Blues? The Tribeca club in Manchester, England?