Jerry Falwell Jr., the deposed and disgraced ex-president of Liberty University, the diploma mill founded in 1971 by his late father, is suing the school again, this time claiming that Liberty has wrongfully exploited the elder Falwell’s name and image, and the Jerry Falwell trademark.
Junior, in the suit, filed on behalf of the Dr. Jerry L. Falwell Family Trust, of which he is a trustee and beneficiary, references the campaign from Liberty U. that uses Founder Falwell’s name on the forthcoming Jerry Falwell Center, uses his name, image, and trademark in commercials and other advertising for Liberty, uses his handwriting and signature in promotional materials, and uses casts of his footprints for a walking tour of the campus.
The lawsuit also alleges that LU is using Falwell intellectual property to solicit donations and to sell naming rights to rooms in the Jerry Falwell Center.
“Liberty announced it is spending approximately $35 million of student tuition money on an ostentatious Disneyesque shrine, including an interactive hologram,” Junior 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,” Falwell Jr. said. “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.”
You do have to wonder how much this latest salvo from Junior has to do with the fallout from his stunning fall from grace in 2020, when Liberty pushed him out as president amid the reports that he and his wife, Becki, had engaged in a years-long sexual and financial relationship with a former pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, that they had met in 2012.
The school and Falwell would go on to sue each other over reputation damage, breach of contract and like things.
Liberty U., in a statement, offered that it “prefers not to comment on active litigation, but some context is helpful, here. Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr. founded Liberty University in 1971. His name is synonymous with Liberty University, and for decades has been used across campus, including on buildings such as the Jerry Falwell Museum and the Jerry Falwell Library.”
“This lawsuit is in response to a specific request by Mr. Falwell, one trustee of the Falwell Family Trust, for the university to pay $7 million for his permission to continue to use the name of Liberty’s founder for the next four years. Included in his demand is the expectation that, in effect, former president Falwell would also have total editorial control of Liberty’s use of the name of Liberty’s founder.
“The university declined the request; so, this lawsuit was filed by Mr. Falwell. Liberty University is confident it will ultimately prevail in this case and the university will be able to maintain its use of the name of its founder.”
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Chris Graham
