Jerry Falwell Jr. made an announcement on Friday stating that the Falwell Family Trust has initiated legal action against Liberty University. The lawsuit alleges that the university unlawfully employed Dr. Jerry Falwell’s trademark, name, and image without authorization.
Following Dr. Falwell’s demise in 2007, his intellectual property was bequeathed to his children, with Jerry Falwell Jr. serving as a trustee and beneficiary among them.
“Liberty announced it is spending approximately $35 million of student tuition money on an ostentatious Disneyesque shrine, including an interactive hologram,” Falwell, Jr. said. “I asked the University to stop improperly using my father’s intellectual property and sent the University leadership a proposed license agreement that would cover the Jerry Falwell Center, assuming there was meaningful consultation with the family about the use of my father’s intellectual property. Unfortunately, they chose to continue using it without authorization, and in an undignified manner that seems to attempt to aggrandize and deify my father in a fawning way that he would never have wanted or approved. It really is the ‘Jerry First Center’ blatantly ignoring the fact that my father was known for producing millions of ‘Jesus First’ lapel pins free of charge for anyone to wear.”
According to the lawsuit, Liberty acknowledged the Trust’s ownership of the trademark, but continued to use it to “create confusion.”