It's open season on the words fair, and and balanced.

A federal judge in New York ruled Friday that Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken does, too, have the right to use fair, and and balanced, in that order, in the title of his new book.

In siding with Franken, the judge rejected an argument by Fox News that the comic was infringing on its trademarked slogan, the aforementioned "fair and balanced."

"In addition to thanking my own lawyers," Franken said after the ruling, "I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life."

Fox News had sought an injunction to stop the publication of Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, a sacrilegious and/or justified skewering of right-wing-skewing personalities, including President Bush, pundit Ann Coulter and Fox News' own Bill O'Reilly.

The book went on sale Tuesday, its publisher, the Penguin Group-owned Dutton, pushing up the launch after Fox News filed suit last week. Late Friday, Franken's tome was Amazon.com's top seller, besting the apolitical, but no-doubt riveting The South Beach Diet.

In rejecting Fox's argument, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin called the network's lawsuit "wholly without merit, both factually and legally."

It was not, however, without its entertainment value.

Just as Fox News' commentators are not known to mince words, neither do its lawyers. The suit said that Franken appeared to be "shrill and unstable," not to mention "increasingly unfunny." It noted the shouting match between him and O'Reilly at book convention in May to charge that Franken's behavior showed him to be "either intoxicated or deranged." In an apparent oversight, it did not make fun of him for that Stuart Smalley movie.

When he read the "personal attacks," Franken cracked last week, "I thought for a moment I was a Fox commentator."

Franken said his book, and its title, would be seen in the courts for what it was--parody. And that's just what Judge Chin said, ruling that the smart aleck's tweaking of Fox News was protected by the First Amendment.

On Friday, Fox News did not rule out an appeal.

"We don't care if it's Al Franken, Al [Grandpa Munster] Lewis or Weird Al Yankovic," Fox rep Paul Schur told the Associated Press. "We're here to protect our trademark and our talent."

The Fox News suit argued readers might confuse Franken's book for an official Fox News publication. The network trademarked the phrase "fair and balanced" in 1998.

Earlier, Paul Newman defended Franken with some satirical prose of his own. In a New York Times op-ed piece, the Oscar-winning Hollywood legend wrote that the Fox suit had inspired him to sue the Department of Housing and Urban Development because its commonly used acronym, HUD, might confuse audiences who associated him with the movie character also known as Hud.

"Newman claims piracy of personality and copycat infringement," he wrote.