Who Owns an Event? Lessons From the Headlines.
There is a very silly legal battle going on right now.
(It’s probably not silly to the people involved. But it’s silly to me because it was HIGHLY avoidable.)
My dear readers (in my best Bridgerton)… it’s all to do with a ball.
And the lawsuit? The big question is who owns the event and who has the right to control it every year going forward.
There’s a BIG LESSON here, and I’m going to tell you all about it.
I’m Maria Spear Ollis, aka The Lunar Lawyer, and I’m going to shine some light on who owns an event.
What’s happening with Nashville’s Swan Ball
The Swan Ball is a fundraiser that’s been put on as a benefit to Cheekwood — Nashville’s botanical garden and historic site — since 1963.
It’s fancy… as in white tie-fancy.
Long story short, a newly-formed nonprofit (consisting of many volunteers that have historically helped to put on the fundraiser) filed a lawsuit against Cheekwood.
It’s… a weird one.
You see, Cheekwood wanted to take the event planning in-house so it could better control the finances for the event. (It’s historically been handled by a group of volunteers).
The volunteers say no…volunteers have planned the ball for years, it’s our ball, and even though you, Cheekwood, have been the beneficiary of the fundraiser for more than sixty years, we own this event.
Cue the lawsuit!
So you might be wondering… who owns an event, anyway? And how could this have been prevented?
The default rule.
Generally speaking, if you’re planning an event — every aspect of it — and you own the brand name, you’re entering into contracts with vendors, you’re marketing it, and you’re staffing it — you probably own the event..
HOT TIP: Make sure you have contracts with your vendors, your volunteers, your speakers, etc. that support your ownership.
The complicating factors for Swan Ball.
This case is a mess for a reason.
First, volunteers have been organizing this event for 60+ years. So they have that going for them.
And for ALL of those years, the event has benefitted Cheekwood.
Cheekwood has provided its own employees to staff the event.
The event takes place at Cheekwood.
Oh, and you’ll notice that swanball.com goes to a website for the event (with an email address swanball@cheekwood.org), while swanball.org redirects to Cheekwood’s website.
…yeah. A mess.
And I haven’t even gotten to the trademarks yet!
There’s going to be a trademark battle.
If you look for the SWAN BALL trademark in the Trademark Office Database, you’ll find two applications:
This one. (Filed by the volunteer organization in May 2024.)
And this one. (Filed by Cheekwood in June 2024.)
Sigh.
And!
Digging deeper into WhoIs records, we see that the domain name swanball.com has been owned since the year 2000. (Presumably by Cheekwood, since it seems to be the current owner.)
What’s WHOIS?
It’s a way to see who owns a domain name, when it was registered, and when it’s up for renewal.
So what’s the lesson here?
The lesson is, and I say this with love and with emphasis:
REGISTER YOUR TRADEMARK BEFORE SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS.
Who owns the Swan Ball? Who knows! It’s going to be determined by the courts, now, because of all of the complicating factors I talked about above.
But now, not only will the volunteer org and Cheekwood be duking it out in Tennessee state court, but they’re going to be battling at the Trademark Office, too. So, two lawsuits.
You’d think some time in the last, I don’t know, sixty years, someone would have applied for the trademark. (Which could only help their claim that they own the event.)
Don’t be like these guys. I promise that it’s worth it to get this protection in place before “it” hits the fan.
“I need to get my trademark registered ASAP!”
Let’s talk! Book a VIP day or schedule a quick call to discuss.