For WAC, Life is Bittersweet

The Walton Arts Center of Fayetteville filed a lawsuit on May 2 against Delta House Publishing Co. of Holly Grove, doing business as Indian Bay Press, for trademark infringement.

The WAC paid top dollar for Neill Archer Roan, a D.C. consultant, to come up with its new slogan, “Life is Sweet,” and star logo featuring Ws for Walton.

But William R. Mayo, a lawyer and publisher of Indian Bay Press, recently began using the slogan “Life is Bittersweet” with a star logo made of Ms (inverted Ws) for Mayo.

“The use of the trademarked slogan by defendants is causing actual damage to Walton Arts by way of detracting and diluting the goodwill and the corresponding advertising investment by Walton Arts into the ‘Life is Sweet’ slogan,” attorney Mark Murphey Henry wrote in the complaint. “The continued infringement by defendants will also cause intangible, irreparable harm.”

The WAC is asking for treble damages and attorney’s fees for two counts of trademark infringement.

Indian Bay Press, which is based in Fayetteville, publishes Poesia, a literary quarterly of poetry and poetry reviews, and Poesia News, a monthly newsletter.

Coughlin Cloud

In a May 10 answer to the Walton Arts Center filing, Carol Nicole Booth, attorney for Indian Bay Press, said Delta House’s logo and slogan are registered with the state and its slogan is not similar, but opposite of the WAC’s. According to Booth, the WAC filed suit in retaliation for an article that appeared in the May issue of Poesia News.

In “The Arts and Dirty Money — The Dark Side,” D. Marie Morey, associate features editor for Poesia News, wrote that the quest for donations for the arts could attract “unsavory elements.”

“Aged Pi Phis who never got over it, the nouveau riche seeking photos ops, and white collar trash make for a witches brew that is distasteful and diminishes the value of the arts,” Morey wrote.

In 2003, Tom and Cynthia Coughlin donated $500,000 to the WAC, and a gallery there was subsequently named for Cynthia Coughlin, Poesia News reported. In March, Tom Coughlin, Wal-Mart’s former No. 2 man, was ousted from the company’s board of directors for allegedly pilfering as much as $500,000 from the world’s largest retailer over an unspecified period of time.

Morey wrote that Anita Scism, president of the WAC, took two trips to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and one to Aspen, Colo., “accompanied by others including at least one spouse of a Wal-Mart executive whom the WAC will not disclose” around the time of Coughlin’s donation to the arts center.

The Poesia News article states that, after discussions with Scism, Tom Coughlin made the WAC donation as a gift to his wife with the understanding that the gallery would be named for her.

The WAC wouldn’t respond to Morey’s questions about the Coughlins, according to the article.

Mayo filed a counterclaim on May 10 saying Scism acted maliciously. He asked the court for compensatory and punitive damages of more than $10,000 for each count in the WAC’s May 2 suit.

Booth drafted interrogatories asking Scism about trips taken with the Coughlins and who had paid the expenses for those trips. Scism has 45 days to respond.