A tussle over ownership of the Music City Bowl's name has sucked in some of Nashville's most influential businessmen.
Denny Brewington, a local entertainment attorney and longtime Democratic Party activist, contends he owns trademark rights to the "Music City Bowl" name and is threatening to sue bowl organizers if he doesn't receive compensation for its use.
But Music City Bowl organizers have a different view of the facts and feel no pressure to give in to Brewington's demands.
Brewington says he first proposed an idea for a "Music City Music Bowl" college football game in 1990. In March of that year, Brewington registered a trademark for the name with the Tennessee Department of State. And last October, three months before the Music City Bowl staged its inaugural game at Vanderbilt Stadium, Brewington applied for trademark approval from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
As compensation for his idea, Brewington is requesting a hefty $100,000-per-year fee from bowl organizers, as well as a place on the bowl's official letterhead as co-founder. He is also seeking to be named permanent entertainment coordinator for the bowl, which will hold its second annual contest this December at the Tennessee Titans' new downtown stadium.
"I'm trying to let them do the gentlemanly thing," Brewington said.
Privately, bowl organizers are incredulous of Brewington's claims and don't believe he has a legal leg to stand on.
Kirk Shaffer, a partner with Stokes & Bartholomew, the law firm representing Music City Bowl organizers, admits organizers don't have a "Music City Bowl" trademark themselves, but he said one is pending. As the only group that has staged a bowl game and the only organization officially sanctioned by the NCAA, bowl organizers think federal trademark guidelines work in their favor, since trademark rights are in part based on prior commercial use of a given trademark.
"There's more to it than going through a regulatory process," Shaffer said. "A lot of it has to do with use."
On May 4, the disagreement spilled into the Metro Council, when Councilman Vic Lineweaver, who says he was unaware of the dispute at the time, sponsored a resolution that recognized Brewington as "founder of the Music City Bowl." The council passed the resolution unanimously with a block of other memorializing resolutions.
The resolution honoring Brewington quickly became wrapped in controversy. It also compelled Mayor Phil Bredesen to do something he had never done before as mayor: veto a memorializing resolution.
Keith Russell writes for the Nashville Business Journal. Correspondent Richard Lawson contributed to this story.
