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Ghost City Tour Reaches Agreement with David Dominé
National corporation settles intellectual property lawsuit with Louisville author
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 13, 2023) – – – More than a year after a small Kentucky business filed suit against a Louisiana-based corporation claiming to be the “World’s #1 Ghost Tour Company,” the defendant, Ghost City Tours Holding, LLC, has reached a settlement with Louisville Historic Tours. The sole proprietor of this local enterprise is David Dominé, an author and storyteller known for the narrated neighborhood walks and haunted tours he has conducted for more than twenty years.
“Ghost City Tours,” as they’re more commonly known, operates in more than 20 cities and offers dozens of experiences including guided walks, pub crawls, and ghostly jaunts in locales such as Hollywood, New Orleans, Savannah, Philadelphia, Austin, and Washington, D.C. Founded in 2012 by Tim Nealon, the enterprise boasts they are “the Worlds’ Largest and Best Ghost Tour Company” with over a quarter million tour-goers each year. In early 2022, Ghost City added Kentucky to its line-up, and rival tour groups began haunting the streets of “Old Louisville,” a historic preservation district billed by Dominé as “America’s Most Haunted Neighborhood.”
The author of more than a dozen books, Dominé has drawn visitors from around the world to Old Louisville since his first story collection came out in 2005. National true-crime and paranormal television shows often seek his expertise, and at least one Hollywood production company has approached him about adapting his tales for the big screen.
“What started off as my volunteering to promote the neighborhood and raise awareness has really taken off for me as a business recently,” said Dominé. “But it’s taken years to get to this point, and when something like what happened with Ghost City Tours happens, you need to act. That’s why I decided to take them to court.”
The complaint filed by Gray Ice Higdon PLLC on behalf of Dominé asserted claims for copyright infringement, false endorsement, unfair competition, and violation of his rights of publicity and privacy. The suit sought monetary and punitive damages, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interest, and destruction of infringing materials as well as injunctive relief.
The current settlement agreement precludes the need for a jury trial in federal court, which was scheduled for August 2024. Had the suit gone to trial, Dominé could have been awarded damages of more than $1 million.
About David Dominé:
David Dominé is an award-winning author, instructor, tour guide, and folklorist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Known for his books on wide-ranging topics, including the paranormal, history, travel, and food and dining, David takes pride in incorporating his real-life experiences into published literature. His 2021 true-crime memoir, A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City, which received a coveted write-up in The New York Times, deals with the 2009 murder of drag queen Jamie Carroll in a spooky mansion that once doubled as a sanatorium in Old Louisville. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly said, “Fans of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil will be captivated.” When David’s not teaching foreign languages and translation at Bellarmine University, he enjoys showing off the Victorian architecture and haunted history in Old Louisville on guided walks offered through the company he founded, Louisville Historic Tours. In addition to more than a dozen titles that include cookbooks, David has published numerous articles, short stories, poems, and translations. He has also appeared in a variety of well-known television productions on networks such as the Travel Channel, PBS, and A&E. For more information, visit www.DavidDomine.com.
