Who owns ‘Jingle Bell Festival?’

By Matt Flumerfelt

November 15, 2008 09:56 pm

— VALDOSTA — Claiming it owns the rights to Downtown Valdosta’s ‘Jingle Bell Festival,’ Black Crow Media has filed court documents against the Central Valdosta Development Authority, requesting an injunction to stop the Authority from using the name for the festival which is only a few weeks away.
According to the motion filed in Lowndes County Superior Court, the Jingle Bell Festival has been produced by Black Crow in cooperation with the CVDA since 2005, the year in which Black Crow alleges they originated the concept.
This year, when the CVDA put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking media sponsors, “the CVDA did not accept Black Crow’s response to the 2008 RFP and, instead, has contracted with a local newspaper to promote the 2008 Jingle Bell Festival,” according to court documents.
The Valdosta Daily Times is a sponsor for this year’s Jingle Bell Festival, scheduled for Dec. 6. The newspaper is not named as a party in the lawsuit.
In October and November, Black Crow completed an application for Copyright Registration with the United States Copyright Office, staking nationwide claim to, and intellectual property rights in, the name and theme according to information contained in the complaint. Black Crow is claiming to have created the Jingle Bell Festival concept, and further, that the CVDA’s use of the concept will cause “immediate and irreparable injury” to the media company.
Black Crow’s attorney, Pope Langdale of Langdale Vallotton, LLP, said, “The city is free to contract with whoever they want to do whatever festivals they want, but when you take an idea that was clearly created and promoted by someone else and appropriate it for yourself, you’re hijacking someone else’s business plan and business idea. If the city doesn’t want to partner
with Black Crow, they can just go back to what they called the festival before.”
The CVDA is being represented in the motion by Coleman Talley, LLP. Tim Tanner, an attorney with the law firm, said, “The CVDA understands Black Crow’s position. The CVDA simply disagrees and believes the facts will demonstrate it has the right to use the name of ‘Jingle Bell Festival.’ ”
Black Crow claims that the CVDA’s use of “Jingle Bell Festival” will cause the collection of local radio stations “immediate and irreparable harm ... by misappropriating and diluting Black Crow’s intellectual property.” A source in City Hall stated that the group of radio stations, which include Rock 108 and Talk 105.9, have canceled appearances by all city officials and employees, including the mayor, as a result of the dispute.
Meanwhile, another U.S. town has used the term Jingle Bell Festival for nearly a decade. While James Pierpont may have once lived in Valdosta, Medford, Mass., is one city claiming that Pierpont wrote the popular song “Jingle Bells” while living there in the 19th century.
The Medford Historical Society in Medford, Mass., has been producing a Jingle Bell Festival since 1999. Judy Lonergan, who is the first chairperson of the festival and still active in organizing it, said the Medford Historical Society has never applied for a trademark on the name because “we never thought we’d have to.”
Pierpont reportedly wrote the popular “Jingle Bells” in a tavern in Medford, although he is supposed to have later copyrighted the song while living in Georgia, according to the society’s Web site.
“We established the Jingle Bell Festival in 1999 and will celebrate our 10th festival, December third through the seventh in the city hall of Medford, Mass.,” Lonergan stated. “All the money that we have raised through the festival has been donated to the Community Family Alzheimers Day Care Center and to the Greater Medford Visiting Nurses Association. We raise the money by having businesses and private citizens donate decorated Christmas trees that we raffle and we hold two tours of decorated homes during the Festival weekend.”
The Medford festival has raised more than $150,000 since beginning in 1999, Lonergan said.
A hearing is scheduled this week in Superior Court at the Lowndes County Courthouse.
The Jingle Bell Festival, formerly known as Winterfest, is scheduled for Dec. 6 on the courthouse square downtown. It will be followed in the evening by the Greater Valdosta Community Christmas Parade, sponsored by the Ossipe Temple of Valdosta.