Business Notes TRADEMARKS

The folks at Cliffs Notes can't seem to take a joke. Last week the purveyor of the plot summaries so dear to lazy students won a court battle to prevent Doubleday from distributing Spy Notes, a Spy magazine parody.

Billed as a "guide to the books everyone talks about and some people even read," Spy Notes satirizes hip, urban novels. A chapter synopsis of a Tama Janowitz novel: "Eleanor goes to Wilfredo's apartment for a dinner party. The couples are all men. The reader understands that Wilfredo is homosexual. Eleanor does not. This is called dramatic irony."

Cliffs Notes objected to a takeoff on its trademarked cover design. "The defense 'parody' does not magically dispel what would otherwise be an infringement," said its attorney. A federal judge agreed. Doubleday plans an appeal.