Wichita had its own Taliesin until the Frank Lloyd Wright foundation heard about it

Even though he said he’s certain he’s in the right, developer Jay Russell has changed the name of one of his west Wichita neighborhoods following a dispute with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

“Here’s the deal: I’m a very, very big copyright person,” said Russell of J Russell Communities.

Russell has a copyright attorney and copyrights all the house plans he designs.

“So when it comes to picking names of subdivisions — those are called trademark names — and I believe you should respect trademarks just as much as I respect copyrights.”

Russell likes the name Taliesin, which is the name Wright gave to houses he designed in Wisconsin and Arizona, which is known as Taliesin West.

Taliesin is “a beautiful name,” Russell said.

So when he decided to use that name for a new neighborhood near 151st and Maple, he checked with his attorney first and found that the foundation has a trademark on the name. However, Russell said a neighborhood in Kansas is different enough from the two Wright houses as to not be a problem. He said his attorney checked with the state of Kansas, and he was cleared to use the name.

“I have a trademark for it, so we started using it.”

In November, he received a letter from the foundation’s attorney.

“They said, ‘We feel like you’re infringing upon our name.’ ”

His attorney responded with a letter that said “here’s all the reasons that we’re not infringing upon your trademark.”

“They sent a letter back and said, ‘We understand your point, but we’re not accepting that.’ ”

No one with the foundation could immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

“I didn’t feel like we were hurting his name,” Russell said.

He said his attorney assured him he would win, but Russell said he “wasn’t willing to spend $100,000 to defend that or fight with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.”

He said he’s a fan of Wright.

“Anybody that’s in the construction business is a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, in my opinion.”

Russell went to the homeowners in the Taliesin neighborhood and asked for help with a new name. They came up with Talia, and he said the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation approved that.

The Taliesin name has been replaced on just about everything now. Russell started with changes to paperwork and then last week finally changed the entrance sign along Maple.

That cost Russell $10,000. All the changes together cost $20,000.

It’s extra frustration on top of an already tough process.

“Names are a difficult thing to come up with sometimes,” Russell said.

He said he wants classy names that don’t have a traditional Midwest feel, such as the numerous neighborhoods that are named for things like creeks.

Russell recently rejected the name Astoria for another neighborhood. He said it’s also a beautiful name, but he said there’s a town in Oregon by that name, and there’s the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

He said the Taliesin incident has forever changed how he’ll approach selecting a name for a neighborhood. Russell said he’ll make sure whatever he picks isn’t similar to another trademarked name.

“I’m not going down that road again.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 2:50 PM.