… in bullet-point form. See below.

UPDATE, 11:54 p.m.: Monica Topping, Kinetic Universe president and (full disclosure) Lost Coast Communications employee just spoke with KHUM’s Mike Dronkers:

Topping interview

  • The Kinetic Grand Championship will go on this year!
  • No one owns the race. In 2007, while trademarked elements such as the name “Kinetic Sculpture Race,” the slogan “For the Glory” and the Kinetic Chicken logo were tied up in litigation, and the former organizers were not going to be able to put together that year’s race, the founding members of Kinetic Universe sat with the race’s Glorious Founder Hobart Brown, on his couch, and he gave us his blessing to put on the race, which would not otherwise have happened that year. The race was renamed the Kinetic Grand Championship, we had a new logo created and we chose, sadly, not to use the slogan “For the Glory,” lest we step on anyone’s toes.
  • It is true that the board of Kinetic Universe has had a licensing agreement with Justin Brown for the last two years, for use of the three trademarked elements. That contract, which we were more than happy to sign, gave Kinetic Universe the ability to use the elements in trade for four t-shirts and $19.69 each year, symbolic of the first year the race ran down Ferndale’s Main Street. 
  • Kinetic Universe was prepared to sign that same licensing agreement for this year, then we received a new agreement that included elements that Brown does not own, including the name and contest for “Rutabaga Queen,” the rules, which have been adapted and changed many times over the years, and our organizational materials, which Kinetic Universe has created, from scratch, starting in 2007. Brown has neither the materials, nor the non-profit status to be able to organize the 2011 race with less than three weeks to go.
  • Kinetic Universe has made attempts to contact Justin Brown, and even contacted Humboldt Mediation Services earlier this week, in an attempt to come to some sort of agreement which would both appease Brown and allow Kinetic Universe to put its energy in this quickly shrinking time before the race toward finalizing the race, so that on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, when the Noon siren blows, our racers will be able to jump into their machines and begin traversing the 42 miles throughout Humboldt County to the grand finish in Ferndale on Monday.