Late Monday afternoon, after 10 months of legal filings and back and forth procedures, the Pittsburgh LGBTQ Community emerged victorious in the fight to reclaim “Pittsburgh Pride” from the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh.
The Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, through their attorneys at Leech Tishman, submitted a formal withdrawal of their application to own the trademark “Pittsburgh Pride.”
“The Delta Foundation must have finally seen the writing on the wall. ‘Pittsburgh Pride’ belongs to the community not them,” said Jim Sheppard, co-creator of QBurgh. QBurgh LLC was the lead opposition in the legal battle with the Delta Foundation over the trademark. Gwen Acker Wood represented QBurgh and helped guide the organization through the legal procedures and forming legal arguments against Delta’s ownership. Many community organizations, like TransYouniting, held protests, petition drives, and fundraisers in opposition to the trademark application as well.
“Delta Foundation’s intention as the dissolution and Covid pandemic played out was to protect the integrity and reputation that the Pittsburgh Pride event has and to ensure that it remains an event that occurs for and by the LGBTQ+ community,” the Foundation said in their filing.
“The Executive Committee of the Foundation [consisting of Marty Healey, Jon Holmes, Chuck Honse, and Edward McAndrews] met and agreed that based on this year’s positive success of [Pittsburgh] Pride Revolution, Pittsburgh Black Pride and Washington PA Pride, as well as the many local neighborhood Pride events that also took place, the Foundation will relinquish the trademark application.”
It remains unclear on what basis the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh believed themselves the gatekeepers of Pride or what the status is of their dissolution. Delta-Withdrawal-Pittsburgh-Pride
