The village of McCook, Ill., recently erected a new welcome sign along its stretch of Route 66, next to the ’50s-themed Steak N Egger restaurant that once was Snuffy’s 24-Hour Grill.
The sign does feature a Route 66 shield prominently, but the rest of its design strongly reminds one of the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. Here’s a photo of the Vegas sign for comparison:
Marie Traska, who alerted me to this story on her Curious Traveler’s Guide to Route 66 in Metro Chicago blog, initially thought that McCook’s city fathers had run afoul with copyright laws for making its sign so obviously reminiscent of Vegas sign, designed by Betty Willis in 1959. Apparently that is not the case:
Ms. Willis never copyrighted or trademarked the design because she wanted it to be widely copied in order to promote the city, explaining that it was her gift to the city. And boy, has it been overused: in Vegas, it’s on almost everything and anything that you can sell to a tourist. Thus, because the design is in the public domain, it seems the village of McCook gets a pass to copy it for their own sign.
McCook didn’t go whole hog in copying the Vegas sign. It doesn’t have any neon, for one. So while it does have some garish pop in the daytime, it won’t have the same eye-popping look at night.
(Image of McCook sign courtesy of CuriousTraveler66 blog, copyright 2013 by J.D. Kubal; all rights reserved. Photo of Las Vegas sign by madlyinlovewithlife via Flickr)
What a GREAT Story….Makes me want to go and see the new sign Mc Cook!!!!
Maybe no copyright infringement is applicable, but how about a case of missing originality??
Lack of inspiration and the mayor seems to have a big ego