Donna Dean Stevens, widow of country music singer Jimmy Dean, is seeking to resume a concert series in Richmond that took place in the 1940s and 1950s called the Old Dominium Barn Dance. The plans include multiple concerts to take place this year with the first scheduled for Feb. 21, 2015. According to her Federal complaint, she is facing threats and requests for payment from Willis Pittman, Old Dominion Barn Dance Inc., and the Old Dominion Barn Dance Foundation for the Performing Arts, and is requesting a declaratory judgment that her use of the concert’s name is not trademark violation because the defendants loss their trademark after more than 20 years of non-use.
See Kevin Lessmiller, Widow Says Barn Dance Must Go On, Courthouse News Service, Dec. 3, 2014.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
