UPDATE: The Kickstarter campaign has been canceled. Barile said he ended it because he believes the DOJ would have terminated the campaign if he had not.
The Kickstarter site says the campaign was canceled by the project creator.
Original story below.
The Oregon Department of Justice has issued a cease-and-desist order for the "Keep Portland Weird!" license plate campaign, saying its organizer has not correctly followed the application process.
Steve Barile never turned in the DMV application and $5,000 non-refundable fee required to start the process. So the DOJ issued the cease-and-desist order for the fundraising effort until the plate has been approved for production.
"We think it may be misleading to potential backers to launch a fundraising campaign before fulfilling the application requirements," said DMV administrator Tom McClellan in a statement.
Despite the order, Barile said he would not halt his Kickstarter campaign because he believes the DOJ misinterpreted the campaign. He said he never promised anything to people who pledged to support him and he was not selling anything.
"I'm confused by their responses because Kickstarter is pretty well understood and they keep acting as if I'm trying to mislead people," said Barile. "I don't take money from anybody until it funds."
He said he hoped the Kickstarter effort would help him gauge whether there was enough public support to justify the application fee.
"Why would we want to jeopardize $5,000 without knowing whether people want this?"
Barile came up with the new Oregon license plate concept that features the trademarked slogan and the old PDX carpet design. Barile said he hoped the plate would celebrate Oregon's urban culture.
A new law passed in 2015 lets people create more Oregon license plate designs; it's how the new "Rip City" plate came to be.
The DMV requires that at least 3,000 people buy in before a new plate goes to print. Barile launched his Kickstarter fund hoping to meet that minimum.
The reward for donating $50 is a prepaid DMV surcharge certificate for the plate and a sticker with the plate design on it.
Two nonprofits would benefit from the DMV specialty plate fees: The Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. The latter was co-founded by Terry Currier, who owns Music Millennium and trademarked the phrase Keep Portland Weird!