KEY LARGO -- The man who has promoted Conch Republic Days in Key West for the past 18 years has counter-sued the Upper Keys Business Group and restaurant owner Howard Kolbenheyer individually for unspecified damages for hosting a festival with a similar name.

The UKBG had asked the court earlier to clarify whether it had a legal right to hold a Conch Republic Days Northernmost Territories celebration in April. A ruling was not rendered before the event, which the group held over a 10-day period in late April.

Peter Anderson, the Key West-based Secretary General of the Conch Republic, responded to the UKBG lawsuit with a demand for a jury trial and a counterclaim that asks for unspecified damages. It also demands that the UKBG and Kolbenheyer be forbidden from "diluting Anderson's" 18-year claim to Conch Republic celebration rights.

"This is not about money," he said. "I wasn't asking for anything."

Anderson said he was willing to oversee the Upper Keys event, but said the group reneged on an agreement.

"They offered me $3,000 and 50 percent of any net proceeds from the festival," he said. "I told them 'fine,' but they later offered me $1,500. I again said 'fine.' They never followed through with the $1,500.

An officer of the UKBG refutes Anderson.

"[Anderson] presented a contract that asked for 50 percent of the proceeds," said Robert DiGiorgio, UKBG vice president. "He never offered any help or guidance. There was always a price on it. I don't understand why he says this isn't about money. That's all it has ever been about."

Anderson blames the UKBG attorney for the legal dispute.

"In my opinion the whole thing broke down when their attorney, Eric Griffin, found that I do not own a trademark on the 'Conch Republic' name," Anderson said. "He advised them that they didn't need to get my permission. That broke my heart. ... I provide Conch Republic-theme community festivals. Any public utterance of the name Conch Republic has to be cleared by me."

Griffin shrugged off Anderson's claim.

"Opinions vary," he said. "He is entitled to his opinion, but not the facts," he said.

Earlier in the year, Anderson was successful in persuading the Monroe County Commission to withhold $18,500 in funds the Tourist Development Council had earmarked for the Upper Keys festival.

"I didn't think it proper for public tax dollars be used to steal from me," he said.

But Anderson says the door is still open.

"I stand ready to sit down with them to create a licensed festival tomorrow," Anderson said.

Anderson's suit also names UKBG member and Snapper's owner Kolbenheyer as a defendant and asks the court to prevent him from "[diluting] and unfairly [competing] with Anderson's intellectual property rights."

Kolbenheyer, who in the past has hosted a Conch Republic event at his restaurant in coordination with Anderson, was not available for comment before press time.

Both the Upper Keys and the Key West Conch Republic festivals were held as planned from April 17-26. Both included bed races, conch shell blowing contests, the burning of a mock-up of the Jewfish Creek Bridge and other events commemorating the 1982 Border Patrol blockade at the top of the 18-Mile Stretch following a mass migration of refugees from Muriel, Cuba.

The Keys, as "The Conch Republic," seceded from the United States in a satirical ceremony, declared a mock war and then surrendered to ask for foreign aid.

sgibbs@keysnews.com