Gallo Center’s Valley’s Got Talent competition gets new name

The Gallo Center for the Arts is changing the name of its Valley’s Got Talent competition, which launched in 2010.

“I guess the ‘America’s Got Talent’ people have been reaching out all over the country” to groups that use a variation on the TV show’s name, telling them to stop doing so, Gallo Center Chief Executive Officer Lynn Dickerson said Friday.

The performing arts center didn’t hear directly from “AGT” producers, who instead contacted one of the major sponsors of Valley’s Got Talent, Dickerson said.

“America’s Got Talent,” an NBC hit from producer Simon Cowell’s Syco Television and FremantleMedia North America, is in its 10th season. About a year ago, the producers sent a letter to the Valley’s Got Talent sponsor that basically said, “You know, they really shouldn’t be using that name,” Dickerson said.

Dickerson said she expected to receive a cease-and-desist letter, but didn’t. “So we used it one more year because we were already well into the process,” she said. “This year, they reached out again. ... We figured this is not a battle we can win, so we might as well change.

“One part of me could argue that we could be really good for them because it’s exposure of their brand, but I suppose trademark protection concerns outweigh that.”

The new name of the local competition, which soon will be accepting entries for its seventh season, is The Valley Talent Project. Dickerson said she’s pleased that the logo for the show looks much the same as it did under its old name.

“I think, really, at the end of the day, it’s not going to be that big of a deal,” she said. “Internally, we used ‘VGT’ a lot as our shorthand, but the truth is people call it all sorts of things, like Modesto’s Got Talent.”

The Valley Talent Project competition will be on stage at the Gallo Center for the Arts on Aug. 26-27. It includes voting by the audience and a panel of judges, and categories include vocal, dance, instrumental, specialty and band.

The entry period will begin April 1 and end May 6. Audition dates have not been set.

It’s not unusual for trademark holders to go after businesses and other organizations that use names or images deemed too similar.

Last year, FremantleMedia, which also owns the “American Idol” trademark, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the organizers of a 7-year-old senior citizen talent show in Brooklyn. “Brooklyn Senior Idol,” held in October, has a look-alike of the “American Idol” logo above the stage.

According to news reports, the letter from “American Idol” producers read in part, “While our client appreciates your enthusiasm for the American Idol and Idol brands, as a federal trademark owner, FremantleMedia cannot allow the unauthorized use of the Brooklyn Senior Idol Mark in connection with talent competition services.”

Later in the year, in time for the fall show, the issue was resolved. The office of New York state Sen. Marty Golden, who regularly has hosted the Brooklyn singing competition, signed a legal contract with lawyers from FremantleMedia letting the borough’s talent show for the elderly keep its name.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Gallo Center’s Valley’s Got Talent competition gets new name."