A story has come to my attention that is funny and pathetic all at the same time. You may know or recall that when Tom Witts campaigned for City Council in 2009 his signs read “Committed to making Everybody proud to be somebody in Snellville.” In 2010, the city adopted that a slightly different version of the slogan and got a trademark on it.
On Friday, the current Mayor called the city attorney and asked him to check to see if it was a trademark violation for Tom to have that on his campaign signs. Those signs are from when he ran for Council in 2009. He bought stickers that say “Mayor” to put over “Council”. So the signs are from 2009, before the slogan was trademarked by the city.
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It appears the attorney called Tom and asked him to consider removing the slogan from the signs. Tom said he would take whatever action is necessary so that the Mayor would not file another lawsuit against the city.
As we said, Saving the City Money One Lawsuit at a Time. We applaud Tom Witts for taking the high road and putting the city’s welfare first. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mayor that does the same thing?
First off, let me apologize to all the folks out there who are good lawyers. There are so many jokes out there about lawyers. After almost four years of having a lawyer as mayor, I understand why there are so many jokes about lawyers.
I just finished reading Patricia Houck Sprinkle’s book “Somebody’s Dead in Snellville”. It’s a 1992 attempt at a murder/mystery that is pretty archaic in the way it is written. However, there are a lot of names and places from the past, like Ivey’s Barbecue, that pique your interest. After the posts of the past couple of day, I think I’ll look into writing a book called “Somebody’s Proud in Snellville”!
As a member of the City Council, I would be remiss if I didn’t respond to this article and the resulting comments. I think Mr. Pace is entirely correct in his assessment. However, as has been pointed out on numerous occasions, I am not an attorney, so I’m seeking clarification on a number of technical legal issues.
However, if I believed Mr. Witts was in any way “not following the rules”, I would have personally advised him of my position and encouraged him to make the appropriate changes. I’m confident my fellow Council members would have done the same. In my opinion, Mr. Witts has not violated any trademark rules. As stated by Mr. Pace in his article and comment, the phrase used on the signs is different from the one trademarked by the city.
The actual trademark application is for the phrase, (in all capital letters) “SNELLVILLE, WHERE EVERYBODY’S PROUD TO BE SOMEBODY”. If you look at Mr. Witts’ signs, you’ll see the slogan, “Everybody is PROUD to be Somebody”, preceded by the phrase “Committed to making Snellville a place where”.
That may seem like splitting hairs, but in my opinion, it is apparent that Mr. Witts is not using the official city slogan, but instead is using a slogan that he created during his 2009 campaign for City Council. As such, the slogan on his signs is not in violation of any trademark.
Without question, the City needs to protect and defend its trademark. However, we do not need to spend money needlessly on attorney fees, especially when a simple conversation would resolve whatever real or imagined issue exists.
Dave Emanuel, Ms. Kautz has pointed out many times that you are not an attorney. However because of your integrity, honesty, work ethic and your ability to not only work with people but lead people by example, I would gladly accept your interpretation as being correct. Even if it wasn’t, it certainly is not worth spending more legal fees on another insignificant issue. At $200.00 an hour, enough is enough, Ms. Kautz. That is our tax money you’re wasting, not your own mad money.
Hey Kurt. We overlapped a little referencing the old and the new. Sitting about ten feet away from KK on Snellville’s Flag Day Celebration I thought my ears deceived me, but maybe not. When KK had finished the Whereases and got to the Now Hereby Be It Resolved I could have sworn I heard her say “……Where Everybody is Somebody…”. I tried within my ability to find a copy of the resolution on line to confirm but couldn’t. So this was more of a habit than a fluke? Still don’t know if this was so.
Howard Williams, I feel certain that the leaving out of “proud”, as you mentioned in your post, is neither caused by a habit or fluke. It most likely is an intentional disregard for the words her peers voted to accept as our motto. Now she is trying to use it for a political tactic. And like Patti Tyson said, she should be worrying about her “over-qualified” city clerk’s threat of a million dollar lawsuit, rather than playing political games with the word “proud’. Just amazing!
“Jelly” Kautz, maybe you should be more concerned about a threatened $1,000,000 lawsuit by your current City Clerk than the use of a slogan on a political sign.
The real question is whether or not Mr. Witts broke the rules. I believe he did not. The slogan on his campaign signs is NOT the same as the one that was trademarked by the city. So when you get down to it, there is no case of “plain and clear use of the official City slogan”. Mr. Witts did not use the official city slogan.
Another point is that Mr. Witts used the slogan on his signs in 2009 before the city trademarked the new slogan that includes the word “proud”. It’s obvious that the signs that have the proud slogan are the original ones used in 2009. They just have a label saying “Snellville Mayor” on top of the words “City Council”. Personally, I applaud Mr. Witts for repurposing his signs rather than discarding them. Also, I did some checking before I wrote the article, and the slogan is NOT used on any new printed campaign material. I don’t know whether you are either misinformed or purposely making false statements.
Frankly, it seems as though your concern is based on politics, not trademarks. If you raised the issue with Mr. Powell, I guess you didn’t get the answer you were looking for. In any case, a more reasonable approach to the issue would have been to contact Mr. Witts directly before contacting the city attorney.
Based on the true facts about the slogan, it appears that it is you, Ms. Kautz, not the Snellville Times that is using propaganda. Our article is based on facts.
So does that mean he, or any citizen, could use “Where Everybody Is Somebody”, the original that was appropriated from a Texas town by Emmett?
It’s a shame Kautz cannot communicate like most people do, through verbal communication and back and forth discussion. She can never let anyone else have the last word. Here we have a saying that Tom Witts authored being disputed by her. Tom had a similar slogan voted on and accepted by the city council for its use several years ago. Ms. Kautz did not vote for it and refuses to use it whenever an opportunity arises. She continues to use the old slogan which was “borrowed” from a town in Texas. Now she wants the lawyers to intercede for her and try to keep Tom from using a saying he created. Now we have more legal bills created because she cannot communicate directly with one of her peers. She must speak through lawyers. I would love to know what legal charges she has accrued during her 4 years in office which are directly attributed to her lack of ability to work out differences in the council chambers. Instead she forces the city to work out differences in the court room. It has been 4 years of a “bully” mayor type of government rather than a “weak” mayor type of government that is legally in place. Enough is enough. Bring sanity, maturity and leadership by example to our council this November. Do not vote for Kautz or anyone she supports, as they will be more of the same bullying tactics. Go Tom and vetted candidates who will make Snellville “Proud”.
Jelly (AKA Mrs Kautz) This is a new low for you, first of all your very sarcastic remark about Tom’s picture was revealing. You have used your graduation picture for the past 15 years. Secondly, your excuse of protecting the City is feeble. You were attempting to make an issue out of nothing and when Mr. Witts was confronted with the dilemma he did just what most of us have come to expect him to do, he took the “high road”. Some day you will look back at your years as Mayor of our City and realize just how much better you could have been and how much more you could have done if you spent as much time working with the other council members as you do trying to expose what you perceive as their fault.
Very well said Ellie Langston!
“Some day you will look back at your years as Mayor of our City and realize just how much better you could have been and how much more you could have done if you spent as much time working with the other council members as you do trying to expose what you perceive as their fault.”
You hit the nail on the head!
Mr. Steve Pace you are correct. I did raise the issue of Mr. Witts using the trademarked slogan of the City in his campaign without permission to the new city attorney. I had actually raised the issue with Mr. Powell as well. My concern was not for an old picture that Mr. Witts is circulating. My concern is over the plain and clear use of the official City slogan in Mr. Witts’ new, printed campaign literature such as the campaign sign pictured here. As a City we have rules as to when our slogan and City Seal can be used. As I am sure you know to protect its usage is the whole reason the City spent time and money to get the slogan trademarked in the first place. Other campaigns and businesses cannot use something that is trademarked whether it be a trademark belonging to the City or anyone else without permission so why should Mr. Witts be treated differently? I understand this is just the latest in an example of ways in which Tom Witts does not have to follow the rules but instead of being Mr. Witts’ fault for breaking the rules through your propaganda it is the fault of the person, in this case me, who is trying to do the right thing in enforcing the rules.
This is exactly why I want a bigger sign in my yard to show support for Tom Witts for Mayor of Snellville. This also shows how low the current Mayor will go to try and cause trouble for a current member of the city council and to try and get at least one more law suit in before she is voted out of office.
Class move Tom, you’ve got my vote.