The City of Rocky Top in Tennessee has kept its name after winning a lawsuit settlement on Sunday with song copyright holders. The filed lawsuit was to seek in preventing the town from changing its name. It is known that its new name was approved by the legislature and the governor of the city.
Attorney Nathan Rowel stated in WBIR , "We fought the case, and we entered into negotiations and reached an agreement." This was an agreement of not being able to use the name Rocky Top for any commercial purposes. However, royalties or trademark fee can be paid to the House of Bryant in certain instances like fundraising. Washington's Top News also posted that there was a separate settlement with the development group that proposed the tourist complex. Nevertheless, this settlement is still under negotiation.
According to the report, House of Bryant was pleased with the settlement and believed of the favors on both parties involved. Attorney Rowel added, "House of Bryant looks forward to growing its business and wishes the best to Rocky Top in its future endeavors."Mayor Michael Lovely also said in WVLT ,"We are glad and excited to finally have this issue resolved and behind us.
On the other hand, related news mentioned that the lawsuit has started in 2014. It begun when Lake City changed over to Rocky Top, where the latter was taken after the iconic bluegrass song. The idea of changing the city's name was to entice in building a massive tourist complex in the former coal mining town of about 1,800 people.
Related report mentioned that the city was not its first time to change name. Rocky Top was called Coal Creek until the 1930s and it was changed in Lake City to capitalize on their proximity to Norris Lake. Changes in the city's name purports in attempting to change its fortunes.
