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A North Carolina charter school’s battle over the rights to a dance team’s name reached the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday, where a legal showdown over branding, alleged deception, and competitive rivalry played out like a high-stakes sports drama.

In an appeal seeking to overturn a lower court’s refusal to grant an injunction, attorneys for Mountain Island Day Community Charter School—operating under Jackson Day School—argued that two former teachers, Megan May and Lisa Lewis, effectively hijacked its "Inspire Dance Team" brand. The school claims they used photos and videos of Jackson Day’s dancers to misleadingly promote their newly formed rival team, Inspire Performing Arts Co., luring parents into a false impression.

Baseball, Branding, and a Courtroom Showdown

During oral arguments, Jonathan Vogel of Vogel Law Firm PLLC, representing Jackson Day, invoked baseball’s greatest rivalry to paint a stark picture of the alleged deception.

“I don’t know if your honors are baseball fans, but imagine if the Los Angeles Dodgers advertised using pictures of New York Yankees players, claiming, ‘Come see our team!’ That would be absurd,” Vogel told the three-judge panel.

Judge Albert Diaz, injecting a bit of courtroom levity, responded, “I don’t know if the Dodgers want to do that right about now—or the other way around.”

Despite the colorful analogy, Judge Diaz expressed skepticism about the school's evidence of irreparable harm.

“I hear a lot of talk about irreparable harm, but I’m struggling to find concrete proof,” he said.

Vogel countered that the Inspire Dance Team was a well-established brand, now damaged by false advertising. Enrollment numbers have plummeted, he argued, due to May and Lewis misleading the public.

Who Owns "Inspire"?

May and Lewis originally coached Jackson Day’s Inspire Dance Team before parting ways with the school and launching Inspire Performing Arts. In August, Jackson Day sued them for trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair trade practices, and breach of contract. The school also sought an injunction to prevent further use of the Inspire name.

However, May and Lewis claim ownership of the Inspire trademark, asserting they founded the team in 2015 while working for a Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District (CMS) institution.

Citing an affidavit, attorney Tricia Wilson Magee of Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP argued that May created the Inspire Dance Team at Winding Springs Elementary as an independent initiative for underprivileged students. She stated that May had verbal approval from the school’s principal to use its facilities for practice.

Jackson Day countered that the team was part of CMS and not a separate venture, which would mean CMS—not May or Lewis—owned any rights to the trademark.

A Tangled Timeline and a Lingering Question

As the hearing unfolded, Vogel revealed that since the September injunction hearing, Jackson Day discovered CMS had abandoned the Inspire name after May and Lewis left in 2018. But Judge Diaz seemed unimpressed by this late revelation.

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you bring this up sooner? Why are we here instead of back at the district court?” he questioned.

Magee, representing May and Lewis, maintained that her clients brought Inspire with them to Jackson Day as a condition of employment. She asserted that they used the name in competitions for two years before the school began claiming commercial rights in 2020.

She also refuted the school’s claims of deception, arguing that there was nothing misleading about the images and videos featuring past students.

“It’s a fact that Ms. May and Ms. Lewis coached these dancers. No one disputes that,” Magee told the panel. “Advertising their experience and showcasing their former students is not false advertising.”

She further dismissed the notion that students appearing in images automatically made them property of Jackson Day.

What’s Next?

The three-judge panel—comprising Judges Albert Diaz, James Andrew Wynn, and DeAndrea Gist—will decide whether Jackson Day has a strong enough case for an injunction or if the lawsuit must continue its slow march through the lower courts.