Who has the right to run alumni group? NJIT feud heads back to court

NJIT officials have spent years in court clashing with members of the former Alumni Association of NJIT after cutting ties with the group in 2008.

NEWARK -- When can university alumni call themselves an "alumni association?"

That's the tricky question a panel of appellate judges is slated to consider Tuesday as a bitter dispute involving New Jersey Institute of Technology alumni heads back to court.

NJIT officials began clashing with members of the Alumni Association of New Jersey Institute of Technology, the school's 80-year-old alumni group, more than a decade ago.

The two sides feuded over money, campus expansion plans and other issues. In 2008, then-NJIT President Robert Altenkirch officially cut ties with the group and started a new alumni group with new leaders. The new group was also named the Alumni Association of NJIT.

NJIT wins legal battle with former alumni association

The old alumni group took NJIT to court in a lengthy and costly trademark case that spent nearly six years in the Superior Court Chancery Division.

In 2014, the court ruled in NJIT's favor and said the old alumni group had to change its name to "Independent Alumni of NJIT." The judge also said the alumni group had to quit using NJIT's logos and stop handing out school awards.

But, the alumni group filed an appeal. Oral arguments in the case will be heard by three appellate judges Tuesday morning at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick, said Joseph Cerra, the alumni group's attorney.

The alumni will argue NJIT stole their group's name and free speech rights, Cerra said.

"They are entitled to use the name 'Alumni Association of New Jersey Institute of Technology' because they were the first association to use this name and the law affords protection to the first user of a name," Cerra said. "The Alumni Association contends NJIT, a state university, acted in violation of the First Amendment by punishing free speech and association rights by trying to take away the Alumni Association's name."

NJIT officials said Monday they don't comment on litigation.

After the 2014 ruling, school officials said they regretted that the dispute ended up in court. But they were pleased the judge said the old alumni group had to change its name.

The case had been costly for NJIT. Though some of its legal costs were covered by the school's insurance policies, NJIT spent at least $460,000 on legal fees defending the initial case in court, a NJIT spokesman said in 2014. That money did not cover the current appeal.

Officials with the alumni group declined to say how much they spent on the case.