V.I. Carnival Committee Files Lawsuit Against Dept. of Tourism For Infringing Trademarks, TRO to be Filed Tuesday

A long-brewing dispute between the decades-old V.I. Carnival Committee, which has been in existence for 70 years, and the V.I. Dept. of Tourism, which in 2020 took over carnival operations through its Division of Festivals arm, has boiled over into the public domain, with the V.I. Carnival Committee, or V.I.C.C., filing a lawsuit against V.I. Dept. of Tourism and Division of Festivals leaders Monday for trademark infringement in the District Court of the Virgin Islands.

Named in the lawsuit is Joseph Boschulte in his capacity as Dept. of Tourism commissioner, Ian Turnbull in his capacity as director of the Division of Festivals, and Halvor Hart, who currently is employed as assistant Division of Festivals director and former executive director of the V.I.C.C.

The action was taken under the The Lanham Act, which is the primary federal trademark statute of law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising.

The V.I.C.C., which was founded in 1952, said that it has used its trademarks, "Virgin Islands Carnival" and "St. Thomas Carnival" in connection with the annual carnival program together with a number of designs and logos throughout the past 70 years. "Such marks and names have been publicly attributed as originating with and being owned by the V.I. Carnival Committee," reads the lawsuit.

The V.I.C.C. alleges that the Dept. of Tourism and its Division of Festivals used trademarks "St. Thomas Carnival" and "Virgin Islands Carnival" during promotions of the 2020 annual carnival in St. Thomas. More recently, D.O.T. and the Division of Festivals have been promoting "Carnival St. Thomas" and "Carnival Virgin Islands", however the V.I.C.C. contends that such changing around of words does little to distinguish from its copyrights.

This year's carnival promotions from the Division of Festivals come with a caption "St. Thomas Carnival VI 70th Anniversary", as seen below.

"There is no doubt that the juxtaposition of individual elements of the mark like Carnival Virgin Islands and or Carnival St. Thomas, as depicted by many of the posters and other promotions produced by the Tourism Department is insufficient to obviate a likelihood of confusion as source, sponsorship and affiliation. Conversely, the juxtaposition actually exacerbate confusion rather than mitigate it," the lawsuit, seen here, reads.

The lawsuit calls the Dept. of Tourism's actions "a hostile takeover" of the V.I.C.C. business, and says D.O.T. "has embarked on a campaign to aggressively solicit the Carnival Committee's vendors and sponsors who have been known to have an existing relationship with the Carnival Committee for decades."

It adds, "Even more troubling, the Tourism Department hired the V.I. Carnival Committee's former Executive Director, Halvor Hart, to spearhead the department's campaign. To do so, Hart cleared out the Carnival Committee's office and took vendor contact lists, volunteer contact lists, application forms for contracts, waivers, indemnity agreements, and the judging criteria used for various competitions. Hart also served up [the] Carnival Committee's format for the subcommittee, events, volunteer organizational structure, to the Department of Tourism on a silver platter."

The lawsuit says the V.I. government on Nov. 1 2019 embarked on an "unlawful and terrifying exercise" demanding that the V.I.C.C., a private organization, allow the V.I. government to appoint three members to its board and to submit the V.I.C.C.'s bylaws to the government for revision.

Additionally, according to the lawsuit, the V.I. Dept. of Tourism on Nov. 8, 2019 told the V.I.C.C. that it possessed the sole authority to "maintain and control receipts and disbursement of all funds for private donations and all funds for public donations, and sponsorships for all festivals." The lawsuit says D.O.T. cited a law which at the time was newly enacted, that gave the department such authority.

The law, which placed the execution of the territory's carnival and festivals under the Dept. of Tourism, represented a sea change and defunded the V.I.C.C. of public dollars. According to the V.I.C.C., which is separate from the St. Croix Carnival Committee, the V.I. government provided anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 annually to the V.I.C.C. to execute the annual St. Thomas Carnival, also known as the V.I. Carnival. The V.I.C.C. also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from private sponsors.