Solvang City Council engages in further discussion over trademarks of intellectual property assets

By Mike Chaldu · Mon Jul 06 2026

Council also adopts 2026-27 budget, but administrative services director warns of deficits in coming years

By Mike Chaldu

The Solvang City Council put in another lengthy discussion of the subject of intellectual property rights in it's Monday, June 22, meeting, for a topic that's been on the agenda multiple times since it was disclosed that Mayor David Brown had an interest in a new app using information about the town's businesses.

As is previous discussions and items on the subject of trademarks and intellectual property, Brown recused himself and handed the gavel over to Mayor Pro Tem Louise Smith during the item.

According the staff report prepared by City Attorney Chelsea O'Sullivan and City Manager Randy Murphy, at prior City Council meetings, including most recently on April 27, council directed staff to further

evaluate the city’s intellectual property assets and potential options for protection of such assets.

In the June 22 meeting, the staff engaged Matthew J. Smith, a shareholder at Polsinelli Law Firm

and vice chair of its Trademark, Copyright & Branding Practice Group, and he was joined by Don Samuels, another trademark expert with the firm, to provide a presentation on key copyright and trademark issues relevant to the city’s intellectual property portfolio, and address questions from the council, believing this consultation with a subject matter expert on intellectual property law was the most cost-effective way to support the council’s further evaluation of the city’s eligibility for registration and enforcement options and related policy considerations.

Smith and Samuels presented the basic guidelines of trademark and copyright registration in their presentation and addresses some questions submitted by city staff. Main among them were the smartest way to enforce (send cease-and-desist letters) and ways they could protect the "Danish Capital of America" slogan.

After the presentation, City Councilmembers began with questions. Councilmember Mark Infanti asked about the differences between the city's marketing website (SolvangUSA.com) and the city's main website (cityofsolvang.com)

"Solvang USA.com has, as you scroll down to the bottom, a notice to see a notice that the site has 'All Rights Reserved'" Infanti said, asking if that meant that everything copyrighted. When Matthew Smith confirmed, Infanti pointed out that the government website did not have that language and would everything on that site be open to infringement.

Matthew Smith said the entire site, including SolvangUSA is City of Solvang and covers all ownership rights. He added that the language on the site wasn't required, but it would be good practice to make sure it's there.

Councilmember Claudia Orona then had a question on enforcement

"You can register material, the right to cease-and-desist, and to sue," she said. "You need to be actively policing it? At what point do we pursue litigation?"

Smith said policing the site is a good policy, but you should pick your battles.

"Policing is more of a trademark consideration, rather than copyright, but it doesn’t mean we need to tilt every windmill," he said. "For copyright, it's not much of an issue, but you need to evaluate whether it's egregious enough, sometimes it’s more trouble than it’s worth."

Ultimately, the discussion on what direction to give to staff on how to protect intellectual property came down to either putting language on each website to cover their trademarks legally, thought it was, as Louise Smith put it, "a shallow dive," and updated it on a need-to basis, which was supported by Smith, Infanti, and Claudia Orona, or more aggressively protecting the assets by registering periodically to protect any new material, an approach favored by Councilmember Elizabeth Orona.

Smith opted for the light disclaimer, saying they've already had O'Sullivan do enough work on it, but Elizabeth Orona replied that if they did that, they would essentially waste all the work O'Sullivan and city staff had done.

Infanti then voiced his opinion that the legal costs of more frequent registrations wouldn't be worth it, to where Elizabeth Orona shot back, "$1,000 isn't worth that to you." O'Sullivan then pointed out that the cost would be more than that because the city would need to talk to a consultant for that.

Later, at the end of the meeting, Orona admitted she was wrong that the cost would be just $1,000, but maintained what she proposed probably would not have required a consultation with an attorney.

Although it was a discussion item and not put to vote, O'Sullivan took the majority's direction to pursue website disclaimers, with Elizabeth Orona saying "I hope no one steals any of our stuff."

In other business:

The council voted 5-0 to approved the 2026-27 city budget, which had been presented during the previous meeting of June 8.

Administrative Service Director Wendy Berry said the city had a surplus of $320,304 for 2026-27.

Berry, however, warned that General Fund, Water Fund, and Wastewater Fund forecast expenditures outpacing revenues over the coming years, and a deficit could reach up to $16 million by 2036 without corrective action.

The City Council will meet next on Monday, July 13, at 6:30 p.m.