Post by kaima on Aug 2, 2017 22:49:26 GMT -7
Whiting, Indiana sure must put something rotten in their pierogies!
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Local committee faces lawsuit threat over pierogi festival
BY BOB KALINOWSKI / PUBLISHED: AUGUST 1, 2017
Lawyers for the Whiting Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana, recently sent a letter to the nonprofit Edwardsville Hometown Committee demanding it stop using the trademarked name or pay royalties for its use.
EDWARDSVILLE — A suburban Chicago-area chamber of commerce wants the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival to drop its name like a hot potato, threatening a trademark infringement lawsuit.
Lawyers for the Whiting Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana, recently sent a letter to the nonprofit Edwardsville Hometown Committee demanding it stop using the trademarked name or pay royalties for its use.
They claim the usage leads to “unfair competition” and “is likely to cause consumer confusion.”
View legal documents related to the lawsuit here.
Several local lawyers have banded together to “save” the Edwardsville festival by filing a preemptive lawsuit Monday in federal court in Scranton. They claim the Edwardsville festival — held 700 miles away — isn’t a competitor and the general name is not a trademark infringement.
“There is no consumer confusion. There is nobody on planet Earth who is going to confuse the ‘Edwardsville Pierogi Festival’ with the suburban Chicago ‘Pierogi Fest,’” said attorney James Haggerty, the mayor of neighboring Kingston.
Haggerty, along with attorneys Greg Fellerman and Corey Suda, filed suit Monday asking a federal judge to allow the Edwardsville nonprofit group to continue using the name “pierogi festival.”
The attorneys, who are working the case for free, said they also are seeking monetary damages because the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce also threatened to hold sponsors of Edwardsville’s festival liable, causing some to reconsider their support.
“The Hometown Committee has done nothing wrong and it is now being shamelessly threatened with what is essentially a shakedown,” Suda said.
The Edwardsville Pierogi Festival held its fourth annual event in June, celebrating the popular Polish food. Its origins followed in the footsteps of the Tomato Festival in Pittston and the Kielbasa Festival in Plymouth.
Just this past weekend, the Whiting Pierogi Fest held its 143rd annual event, which attracts around 300,000 people a year. The letter from the Indiana festival notes the event uniquely “emphasizes east European ancestry” and the chamber got a trademark for the festival name in 2007.
Both pierogi events are held in areas with large Polish populations.
In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau named Luzerne County as the only county in the United States in which Polish is the most common ancestry of residents, a fact the local attorneys noted in their lawsuit.
Likewise, Polish is the most common ancestry in the city of Whiting, Indiana, which is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, just outside Chicago.
Organizers for the Edwardsville event don’t see why the suburban Chicago organization feels threatened by the small-town event in Northeast Pennsylvania. They say their nonprofit group is comprised of volunteers and all proceeds benefit charitable community causes.
“Our Hometown Committee is a group of local volunteers who are simply trying to help their community,” said Jackie Kubish Moran, president of the group. “We are fighting to save the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival. We are shocked that a chamber of commerce from the Chicago area would threaten to sue us for volunteer work that we do.”
Efforts to reach attorneys for the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce were not successful Monday.
* * *
Local committee faces lawsuit threat over pierogi festival
BY BOB KALINOWSKI / PUBLISHED: AUGUST 1, 2017
Lawyers for the Whiting Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana, recently sent a letter to the nonprofit Edwardsville Hometown Committee demanding it stop using the trademarked name or pay royalties for its use.
EDWARDSVILLE — A suburban Chicago-area chamber of commerce wants the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival to drop its name like a hot potato, threatening a trademark infringement lawsuit.
Lawyers for the Whiting Pierogi Fest in Whiting, Indiana, recently sent a letter to the nonprofit Edwardsville Hometown Committee demanding it stop using the trademarked name or pay royalties for its use.
They claim the usage leads to “unfair competition” and “is likely to cause consumer confusion.”
View legal documents related to the lawsuit here.
Several local lawyers have banded together to “save” the Edwardsville festival by filing a preemptive lawsuit Monday in federal court in Scranton. They claim the Edwardsville festival — held 700 miles away — isn’t a competitor and the general name is not a trademark infringement.
“There is no consumer confusion. There is nobody on planet Earth who is going to confuse the ‘Edwardsville Pierogi Festival’ with the suburban Chicago ‘Pierogi Fest,’” said attorney James Haggerty, the mayor of neighboring Kingston.
Haggerty, along with attorneys Greg Fellerman and Corey Suda, filed suit Monday asking a federal judge to allow the Edwardsville nonprofit group to continue using the name “pierogi festival.”
The attorneys, who are working the case for free, said they also are seeking monetary damages because the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce also threatened to hold sponsors of Edwardsville’s festival liable, causing some to reconsider their support.
“The Hometown Committee has done nothing wrong and it is now being shamelessly threatened with what is essentially a shakedown,” Suda said.
The Edwardsville Pierogi Festival held its fourth annual event in June, celebrating the popular Polish food. Its origins followed in the footsteps of the Tomato Festival in Pittston and the Kielbasa Festival in Plymouth.
Just this past weekend, the Whiting Pierogi Fest held its 143rd annual event, which attracts around 300,000 people a year. The letter from the Indiana festival notes the event uniquely “emphasizes east European ancestry” and the chamber got a trademark for the festival name in 2007.
Both pierogi events are held in areas with large Polish populations.
In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau named Luzerne County as the only county in the United States in which Polish is the most common ancestry of residents, a fact the local attorneys noted in their lawsuit.
Likewise, Polish is the most common ancestry in the city of Whiting, Indiana, which is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, just outside Chicago.
Organizers for the Edwardsville event don’t see why the suburban Chicago organization feels threatened by the small-town event in Northeast Pennsylvania. They say their nonprofit group is comprised of volunteers and all proceeds benefit charitable community causes.
“Our Hometown Committee is a group of local volunteers who are simply trying to help their community,” said Jackie Kubish Moran, president of the group. “We are fighting to save the Edwardsville Pierogi Festival. We are shocked that a chamber of commerce from the Chicago area would threaten to sue us for volunteer work that we do.”
Efforts to reach attorneys for the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce were not successful Monday.