(Louisville, KY) - The Kentucky Derby Festival is taking legal action, asking to be allowed to continue promoting this year's Pegasus Pins and use its trademarked Pegasus logo.
The filing comes after a man threatened to sue the festival for copyright infringement over the use of the 2018 KDF sports jackets as the inspiration for this year's Pegasus Pin.
KDF officials say Andre Wilson agreed to assist them with the jackets last year and was paid, but that their logos were created years before Wilson's involvement with the jackets.
Here is the full statement from the Kentucky Derby Festival:
“We are both shocked and saddened that the Kentucky Derby Festival and one of its primary sources of sponsorship funding has been threatened with litigation. The Kentucky Derby Festival has been faced with allegations presented by Andre Wilson claiming copyright infringement based upon use of the 2018 KDF Uniform Jacket as inspiration for the 2019 Pegasus Pin.
Today we filed a legal action asking for a judgment declaring the rights of the Kentucky Derby Festival to be able to continue to promote its 2019 Pegasus Pins and use its trademarked Pegasus logo.
We view the Kentucky Derby Festival as a Louisville celebration that has been bringing the community together each spring for more than 60 years - and that will remain our focus for the next few weeks. We were blindsided by the allegations presented by Mr. Wilson and are disappointed that we had to defend ourselves against their actions.
In 2018, the agreement between the Kentucky Derby Festival and Mr. Wilson extended no further than to assist our team in the styling, sourcing and manufacturing of the KDF Uniform Jacket, and he was paid for those services. Our team worked with Mr. Wilson to ensure that the Kentucky Derby Festival brand and colors were present and properly executed to reflect the longstanding tradition of the repeating Pegasus logo on the jacket, dating back to 1976.
We take our branding very seriously and while we appreciate Mr. Wilson's role as a stylist, we will continue to defend our rights to promote the 2019 Pegasus Pin and use the Kentucky Derby Festival's trademarked logo and trade dress that was created years prior to Mr. Wilson’s involvement."
Photo Credit: Kentucky Derby Festival
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