DURHAM, N.C. ― John Wayne’s heirs are taking Duke University to court over the family’s right to market bottles of bourbon branded with the late movie star’s nickname, Duke.
A federal lawsuit filed last week is the latest salvo in a long-running legal duel between the North Carolina university and California-based John Wayne Enterprises over commercial products featuring the name. The late actor used the moniker since childhood, when he adopted the name of the family dog.
Lawyers for the university say allowing the Wayne estate to use the name could cause confusion and “diminish, dilute and tarnish” the value of the name, for which both parties hold trademarks.
A message seeking comment from the John Wayne Enterprises was not immediately returned.
The proposed bourbon label would feature an image of Wayne holding a rifle with “Duke” emblazoned over it in bold letters and the phrase “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” according to court filings.
“Duke University does not own the word ‘Duke’ in all contexts and purposes,” the family’s lawyers said in the lawsuit. “Duke is a common word that has been used for centuries in a wide array of commercial and other applications wholly independent of Duke University. Yet by the actions alleged herein, Duke University seems to think it owns the word ‘Duke’ for all purposes and applications.”
Duke University is named for a wealthy family of Durham tobacco barons who in the early 1900s endowed what had been a small rural college affiliated with the Methodist church. It made the first legal move against the Wayne heirs when it opposed their 2005 trademark application to use the name Duke for a restaurant.
