Pierogi festivals settle over trademark dispute

A northwestern Indiana city that hosts an annual festival built around a popular Polish delicacy has reached a settlement in its trademark dispute with a rival festival in Pennsylvania.

Federal court records don’t include specifics about the settlement, the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana reported. But officials who run Pennsylvania’s Edwardsville Pierogi Festival “acknowledged that it’s our trademark,” said Tom Dabertin, chairman of the Pierogi Fest in Whiting.

Since 2014 the Edwardsville Hometown Committee has run the Pennsylvania festival dedicated to the potato-filled dumplings, abundant in a region whose coal mines drew Polish immigrants more than a century ago. Representatives for that festival didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Hometown Committee filed the lawsuit last summer after receiving letters from the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce accusing the committee of infringing on its “Pierogi Fest” trademark. The letters sent in 2015 and 2017 alleged the Edwardsville festival directly competed with the one in Whiting and was “likely to cause consumer confusion,” according to court records.

“There is no person on planet Earth that is confused by this,” Jim Haggerty, an attorney for the Edwardsville festival, said last year.

Both festivals described themselves as nonprofits that celebrate the Polish heritage in the communities they’re held in with parades, vendors and games. The Whiting festival has been around since 1995.

Dabertin said last year that Pierogi Fest officials are just following their protocol for “protecting our integrity” and the festival’s reputation.

“We have allowed others to use (the trademark), but they always got our permission,” he said, adding that Edwardsville will still continue to hold their festival.

Whiting’s festival is scheduled for the end of this month. The Edwardsville festival took place last month.