Tournament Drops Appeal of Court Decision in Lawsuit Against City

The final chapter of the Tournament of Roses’ 2021 lawsuit against the City over the Rose Bowl Game came to a close Friday after a Ninth Circuit mediator granted the Tournament’s request to dismiss its appeal of the outcome.

The dismissal came a week after a Central District Court ordered the Tournament to pay the city over $400,000 in attorney fees arising from the lawsuit.

The appeal was filed last August after US District Court Judge André Birotte, Jr. sided with the city and dismissed all but one of the counts filed by the Tournament in its February 2021 lawsuit for alleged trademark infringement, unfair competition, false association, slander and false advertising.

The rulings by Judge Birotte will stand. Birotte dismissed the counts with prejudice, meaning the Tournament may not refile them again.

Despise the legal setbacks, Tournament officials have said repeatedly said the lawsuit achieved key purposes.

“Through the confirmation of the Tournament’s trademark rights and the preservation of its force majeure rights, the suit’s main goals were achieved,” Tournament of Roses CEO David Eads said in July.

The Tournament began the appeal process in August after the city asked Birotte to order the Tournament to pay the city’s attorney fees for defending itself from the lawsuit. This request was opposed by the Tournament, which argued in the appeal that the city had not prevailed in the case.

With the opening appellate brief in the appeals case due in days, on March 18 Birotte awarded Pasadena $408,923.10 in attorneys’ fees for the original lawsuit.

The city said in a statement Birotte’s order was “vindication for taxpayers who footed this bill defending [Pasadena] against the Tournament’s lawsuit.”

The Tournament responded to the decision by again saying the city’s concession and the court’s acknowledgment that the Tournament owns all rights to the Rose Bowl Game and its marks means “we were successful in protecting that intellectual property.”

The statements issued by both the city and the Tournament each concluded with comments about moving forward together.

Last Wednesday the Tournament asked the Ninth Circuit to order the dismissal of the appeal.

“The Tournament conferred with counsel for the Appellee City of Pasadena, who refused to agree to this motion unless the Tournament agreed to other conditions that are unacceptable to the Tournament,” the Tournament told the court. “Accordingly, since no briefs have been filed in this appeal, the Tournament respectfully requests that the Court dismiss the appeal with each side to bear its own costs on appeal.”

On Thursday Circuit Mediator Robert S. Kaiser granted the dismissal.

On Friday, the city filed a Request for Entry of Supplemental Judgment to finalize the District Court’s prior award of attorney’s fees in the city’s favor.

“Such fees were awarded,” the city said in a statement, “because the City had prevailed on the merits on every claim brought by PTOR [Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association].”

Following the dismissal, Tournament spokesperson Candy Carlson told Pasadena Now that “The Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association and the 935 volunteer members and staff are moving forward and focused on preparing for the 2023 Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game. The Association will continue our long-standing partnership with city officials and work together to provide world class events as we have for more than 130 years.”