Ravinia Festival Blocks Brewpub From Opening Over Trademark Claim

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — A demand for royalties from the Ravinia Festival halted preparations to open a brewpub in Highland Park's Ravinia district in the coming months. The outdoor music festival sent a letter to the Ravinia Brewing Company two weeks ago demanding licensing payments and royalties for the brewery's use of the neighborhood's name, according to the Ravinia Neighbors Association, a local community organization.

Ravinia has been the name of the area since 1873. It was annexed into Highland Park in 1899. The Ravinia Festival, the oldest outdoor music festival in North America, was founded in 1904.

In 2011, the nonprofit obtained a trademark for the use of the term "Ravinia" for "restaurant services; catering services; offering banquet facilities." The festival has three other active trademarks, two of which involve "Entertainment services; namely, presentation of performing arts shows and conducting performing arts festivals." The other involves providing food and catering services under the name "Ravinia Festival."

Between 1985 and 2015, the proposed location of the Ravinia Brewing Company's restaurant at 592 Roger Williams Avenue housed Ravinia BBQ. There is no indication Ravinia Festival ever sought licensing payments from that restaurant during its three decades of operation. In order for the music festival to get its trademark for "restaurant services," it filed a sworn statement alleging there was no other restaurant using the name, despite the existence of the longtime barbecue joint.

The Ravinia Brewing Company filed for its trademark in 2015. There is no record of the music festival raising any objection at the time. There is also no record of the music festival ever brewing beer.

The brewpub's owners, Highland Park residents Kris Walker, David Place and Brian Taylor, say they will be forced to cancel plans the business if the music festival doesn't relent.

Their proposed pub planned to offer a full menu upon opening in April, but had no intention of hosting musical performances.

Walker said the outpouring of support from the community has reinforced the desire of the owners to be strong and active parts of the community.

"We are obviously disappointed in the letter we received requesting for us to sign a 'licensing agreement' with associated royalties and penalties," said Walker, the brewery's managing partner.

"[B]ut ultimately it is our hope that the leaders of the Festival will quickly step in to focus on the benefits that can be achieved through a strong community partnership, and ultimately, support the public interest mission on which Ravinia Festival was founded," he said.

Before receiving what he described as the "very tough letter," the brewery's relationship with the festival had been "friendly and encouraging."

"We look forward to the Ravinia Festival reverting to those activities and qualities that have made them such a special part of our neighborhood," Walker said.

Justin Kee, president of the Ravinia Neighbors Association, pointed out the neighborhood also includes another restaurant, the Ravinia Coffee Station, in addition to the now-shuttered barbecue spot.

"For a private corporation to appropriate this public good is really insensitive, and it's callous to the people that live in the neighborhood," Kee said.

He said Highland Park has established a TIF district in the area and plans to spent more than a million dollars on improvements there to turn the Ravinia District into a destination area.

"We have a number of empty storefronts along that corridor, and here we have what could be an anchor tenant be basically forced out of its space," Kee said.

The festival sent over the licensing agreement the week before construction on the pub had been set to begin. After months of preparation and going through the city's permitting process, those plans have been halted.

Highland Park city staff has declined to explicitly take sides, with City Manager Ghida Neukirch describing the matter as a "private intellectual property dispute concerning the use of logos."

Neukirch said she believed a similarity between the two logos was "causing brand confusion" and hoped the two businesses can come to a swift resolution to the dispute.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, an honorary chair of the festival, has not responded to a request for her response to the dispute.

The neighborhood association conducted a poll about opinions regarding the definition of "Ravinia" and the festival's efforts to "extract licensing fees" from local businesses.

Among about 1,000 responses in the first 24 hours the poll was active, 93 percent oppose the festival's attempt to secure licenses from businesses, 97 percent said that the term "Ravinia" does not exclusively refer to the music festival and 93 percent supported taking actions to ask the festival to "cease this community threatening behavior," according to Kee.

Intellectual property attorney Brett Tolpin, who is representing the brewing company and also sits on the board of the neighborhood group, described the festival's letter as a "massive overreach."

Tolpin said he reviewed the 13-page licensing agreement the festival sent and was surprised to learn it would have seen the beer startup pay per-unit licensing fees. It also said the microbrewery "would be paying a pretty significant royalty for their beer, and that Ravinia Festival would own the name."

Under the licensing agreement, the festival could cancel the agreement at any time, at which point the brewpub would have to shut down and the music festival would own the name "Ravinia Brewing."

Tolpin argued that Ravinia deceived the patent office in its application for exclusive rights to use of the name for restaurants by ignoring the existence of a restaurant in the very same location where the brewpub was set to operate.

In 2010, he said, a senior official at the festival signed a document alleging that it was the "exclusive" user of the term "Ravinia" in restaurant or catering services.

"Now, they get their ill-gotten registration, and now they're taking it to enforce it against the equivalent of another Ravinia BBQ – even though they coexisted with Ravinia BBQ," he said, suggesting the festival's trademark would never have been granted "had they been truthful in that declaration."

The Ravinia Festival did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday.

According to its annual report, the 501c3 nonprofit that runs the festival brought in nearly $25 million in ticket and related revenues last year and has a $28 million fixed asset fund.