03/26/2026
LEGAL BATTLE WITH CITY OF AUSTIN OVER LOGO HEATS UP
Undoubtedly you will recall last year the City of Austin spent $1.1M to create a new city logo that was so ridiculous that it became an international laughingstock.
Cost Breakdown: Major expenses include over $640,000 for brand vendors, $115,000 for a public awareness campaign, $75,000 for design software, and roughly $100,000 for updating materials like business cards and uniforms.
As you may also remember, on November 21, 2025, Save Austin Now launched our outside audit charter amendment effort, to require regular, outside, performance audits of the entire City of Austin budget (more on the latest on that effort below).
When we launched the effort, we created our own logo, with our own colors, text, message and website URL.
Our logo is both a parody of the city logo, and the city logo was never formally approved by the City Council.
In spite of this, City Hall threatened Save Austin Now over our logo.
But rather than wait, on December 5, 2025, we sued first, in state court, engaging noted local attorney Bill Aleshire, filed a permanent injunction on our behalf to stop the City’s efforts to harass us over the logo.
From the Statesman story (https://www.statesman.com/news/article/save-austin-now-lawsuit-parody-logo-dispute-21223539.php) at the time:
The group is asking a Travis County district judge to issue a permanent injunction against Broadnax to prevent him from “interfering in Plaintiffs’ exercise of their rights, including their right to criticize the Broadnax Logo and use it as parody free speech” and to declare that the logo cannot be trademarked. The lawsuit also alleges that the new logo is not legal because the City Council did not adopt it.
The story continued:
The lawsuit comes after the city, through attorney Dwayne Goetzel with the intellectual property law firm KHMR&G, sent a letter to Save Austin Now alleging unauthorized use of the city logo on the PAC’s website. The image of the city logo was a parody of the Austin logo with a picture of the stylized “A” and the word “audit” underneath.
“This is an example of the abuse of power by the city administration. It is an outrageous threat,” said Bill Aleshire, the attorney filing the lawsuit against the city.
The story continued:
Goetzel wrote in his letter to Mackowiak that the parody logo will confuse consumers who may believe it is sponsored or approved by the city. Goetzel did not respond to requests for comment.
“Save Austin Now’s use of the city’s logo is inappropriate, confusing to the public, and a violation of our established trademark for an identity we established to make it easier for the public to connect with City services,” Jessica King, the city’s chief communications director, said in a statement, adding that creating a logo and brand guidelines for city services is an operational function and therefore does not require City Council approval.
The city’s communication and engagement budget includes legal services for the registration and protection of the brand mark, she added.
“Save Austin Now will not allow weak legal threats from city leadership through their expensive outside attorneys to prevent us from holding city leadership accountable when necessary. If they want a fight over this ridiculous logo, bring it on,” Mackowiak said.
The City of Austin is making two absurd claims:
Austinites cannot tell the difference between our logo and theirs
That their logo helps “the public connect to city services”.
Both are laughably ridiculous.
The City of Austin has now sued Save Austin Now PAC in federal court.
So there is a battle for jurisdiction, as we initially filed our permanent injunction in Travis County District Court and the City of Austin filed their lawsuit in federal court.
Because of this, we have now hired Paula Knippa of Knippa Law to assist on the federal side.
OUTRAGE ALERT: The City of Austin has hired expensive outside council (Dwayne Gotezel), at taxpayer expense, to harass and sue a nonpartisan organization over a ridiculous and expensive city logo that was never even approved for use by City Council.
We will fight this to the end. Enough is enough.
But lawyers cost money, and while both of our attorneys are reasonable, we do need your support for this battle.
SUPPORT US:
-You can securely donate online here (https://www.saveaustinnow.com/donate) // (our donation page on website).
-You can securely donate online here (https://secure.anedot.com/save-austin-now-pac/save-austin-now-pac-legal-fund-c4cfa533f8ab98c9da232) to our Legal Fund (via anedot).
-You can venmo
-You can make a check to “Save Austin Now PAC” and mail it to: Save Austin Now, 807 Brazos Street, Suite 306, Austin, TX 78701.
Thank you!
-Save Austin Now PAC
