LAS VEGAS — An embarrassing mistake involving a Statue of Liberty stamp could come back to haunt the U.S. Postal Service.
The “forever” stamp design released in 2011 was not based on the statue in New York Harbor, as intended, but on a replica outside the New York-New York casino hotel in Las Vegas.
Now, the sculptor who made the Lady Liberty of the Las Vegas Strip is suing the government for copyright infringement.
Attorneys for Robert Davidson argue in a suit filed last week that the Sin City statue was more “fresh-faced” and “sultry” than the original. They say these differences led the government to prefer Davidson’s statue.
A spokesman for the Postal Service did not immediately return calls. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor has appeared on more than 20 stamps.
By late 2011, the Postal Service had already printed more than 5 billion copies of the Las Vegas Lady Liberty forever stamps, according to the complaint.
