La Quinta Arts Foundation (LQAF) believes the respect and protection of intellectual property (“IP”) is a foundation of creativity and innovation. 

Today, in furtherance of that belief and in order to defend and enforce its incontestable U.S Registered Trademark for the name LA QUINTA ARTS FESTIVAL (the “LQAF Mark”), LQAF filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office a response to a Petition for Cancellation of the LQAF Mark submitted by the city of La Quinta.  In conjunction with the response filing, LQAF also submitted a complaint with the United States District Court to enjoin the city of La Quinta from its continuing infringement of the LQAF Mark. 

These actions are taken in direct response to an attempt by the city of La Quinta to cancel the protected “LQAF Mark” in order to register and replace it with a mark of its own.  Both are essential to guard against future liability for LQAF as well as to protect consumers from confusion regarding ownership and association from those who wish to knowingly profit from deception and confusion in the marketplace. 

LQAF is confident it will prevail in both actions and looks forward to continued success for its signature art festival and related programs, exhibitions and experiences in support of art, culture and life.

About La Quinta Arts Foundation

La Quinta Arts Foundation (LQAF), a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization, was founded in 1982 “to promote and cultivate the arts.” 

LQAF launched the La Quinta Arts Festival in 1983. During the decades that followed, La Quinta Arts Festival tallied $57 million in art sales, supporting the livelihood of thousands of artists and providing over $1.3 million scholarships to local college students. Recognized many times for its success, the La Quinta Arts Festival has been named the number one fine art festival in the nation. 

Background

  • Since 1983, LQAF has continuously used the La Quinta Arts Festival Mark in connection with community art events and activities. 
  • In June 2019, LQAF notified the city that it would not hold a 2020 La Quinta Arts Festival on city property, advising of its intention to work toward development of new programming and collaborations with the city on future arts and culture initiatives.  
  • LQAF intended, and still intends, to continue use of the La Quinta Arts Festival Mark. 
  • In August 2019, the city of La Quinta sought to register multiple names for trademark protection, including La Quinta Signature Art Event and La Quinta Art Celebration. 
  • On November 20, 2019 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Examining Attorney issued an action against the city’s applications for registration, citing the LQAF registered mark used in association with art festivals as a bar to registration of the city’s proposed marks.
  • In spite of the denial by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the city of La Quinta continued using the unregistered and infringing marks to promote its own event scheduled and eventually held in March 2020. 
  • In May 2020, the city returned to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, this time to appeal the 2019 Patent Office denial for registration of the city’s La Quinta Art Celebration mark. For the second time the city was denied, their file closed and their trademark application abandoned by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Dec. 2020. 
  • In February 2021, the city returned to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the third time.  This time seeking to cancel the LQAF Mark entirely.