Harper Lee Settles Suit With Museum
Harper Lee, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and an Alabama museum have settled their trademark dispute over the 87-year-old’s celebrated novel. What the two sides agreed to, though, remains a secret. The Wall Street Journal reports: ‘The reclusive author sued Monroe County’s Old Courthouse Museum last year, accusing it of trying to profit from her Depression-era tale of a small-town, Southern lawyer determined to prove the innocence of a black man accused of rape. Built around a renovated version of the courtroom that served as the setting for the book’s dramatic trial, the museum is the star tourist attraction in Ms. Lee’s native Monroeville, the town of 6,500 that inspired the setting of the novel. Ms. Lee’s lawyers alleged that the museum was piggybacking on her trademarks by selling unlicensed “Mockingbirdâ€-related merchandise, ranging from T-shirts to tote bags to packages of “Mockingbird Lemonade Mix.‒ I would market “Mockingbird LemonWade Mix” to support this website, but I’m afraid Ms. Lee and her legal guardians would sue me.
