Beauty contest heads to court
John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
Published October 30, 2007 at midnight
There she goes, Mrs. Colorado . . . .
Or does she?
Two beauty pageants each say they have the right to crown a Mrs. Colorado every year, and their dispute has landed in court.
The trademark infringement trial, which started in U.S. District Court in Denver Monday, pits Mrs. Colorado-America Inc. against the Mrs. Colorado United States pageant.
Mrs. Colorado-America Inc. condends it is the only organization that can crown a "Mrs. Colorado," something that has been done as far back as 1977.
On the other side, the Mrs. Colorado United States pageant counters it has been crowning a "Mrs. Colorado United States" since 1986, until the current dispute got rolling in 2004.
The Mrs. Colorado-America organizers filed for a state trademark for the term "Mrs. Colorado" in October 2003 and a for federal trademark in June 2007.
Mrs. Colorado-Americacontends the other is violating that trademark and seeks damages and a court order forcing it to stop.
"The public deserved clarity," said Otto Hilbert, lawyer for Mrs. America-Colorado. He says that because of confusion between the two pageants, mistakes by the competing outfit are reflecting badly on his client.
"The bad name of the one will impugn the other," he told U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger in opening arguments during a non-jury trial.
But the rival organization contends it is well within its rights to have Mrs. United States contestants who represent Colorado.
"The plaintiff has no right file this lawsuit," said Benson Lee, lawyer for Mrs. Colorado United States and its director, Lonnie Gibson.
Lee says there are ulterior motives for the lawsuit and that the damages sought are speculative. He also argued there is room for two competing pageants.
"All pageants have one goal: to promote charity," he said. "Both organizations are in a position to do this."
Judge Krieger said that unless Hilbert can show her case law to the contrary, she is not going to preside over arguments about who runs the better pageant.
"This is not a trial about who are the bad guys and who are the good guys, or to determine who is doing a better job of running a pageant," she said. "This is a trial about trademark infringement.
About 24 hours of testimony have been scheduled for the case. It is not expected to go to the judge for a verdict until later this week.
ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291
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