Last year, the company released a Portlandia Pils bearing the image of the statue without asking permission because the brewery's graphics people were under the assumption that a statue bought with public money, sitting on public land, was something the public had the right to use. Later informed that Kaskey aggressively protects his copyright—which won't expire for 70 years after the septuagenarian Pittsburgh native dies—Laurelwood owner Mike DeKalb decided to contact him about securing the rights before this year's labels were printed.