NEEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Needham based travel company TripAdvisor has issued a cease and desist order on Friday to the organizer of the straight pride parade.
According to the order, John Hugo, founder of Super Happy Fun America and organizer of the Boston straight pride parade, made false claims stating he was in talks with TripAdvisor in regards to a possible sponsorship for the event.
TripAdvisor says Hugo is infringing on their trademark and tradename rights by using their logo without their permission.
The unique letter works in several song titles that have been adopted bt the LGBTQ+ community including, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” to express their misgivings.
“There is nothing Vogue or acceptable about making false claims about others merely to support your own cause. If I Could Turn Back Time, I would tell you not to use our name in the first place,” the statement says. “But now that you have, TripAdvisor demands that you remove all uses of our name, mark and logo from your website (and anywhere else you might use it) within 24 hours and not use them again.”
The Super Happy Fun America website shows a list of “prospective corporate sponsors” that includes, Google, Netflix, Starbucks, Amazon, and Facebook.
Several of the logos have a black “X” placed over them to indicate that the companies have declined to participate.
A spokesperson for the company said in a statement, “TripAdvisor is a proud and inclusive workplace. We believe the organizers of this event owe the LGBTQ+ community and apology – even if SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD to say.”
Hugo has yet to remove the logo.
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