MOBILE, Alabama – A rift between Monroe County’s most famous resident and its heritage museum has grown deeper with a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by author Harper Lee. The book, which chronicles a lawyer’s defense of a black man accused of raping a white woman in the fictional town of Maycomb, has sold more than 30 million copies in English and has been translated into more than 25 other languages. “Monroe County's history cannot be understood without an understanding of the history and impact of’ To Kill a Mockingbird.’ It is a part of what Monroe County is both as a county and a community.” 
 
 The lawsuit alleges the museum’s lawyer demanded a “royalty-free” license in June as a condition for not opposing Lee’s trademark application and then pressured the Reuters news agency into changing its report that the museum was refusing to share its profits with Lee. “The town’s desire to capitalize upon the fame of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is unmistakable: Monroeville’s town logo features an image of a mockingbird and the cupola of the Old County Courthouse, which was the setting for the dramatic trial in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’” the complaint states. Conflict between the museum and author erupted earlier this year when the museum moved to block Lee from registering her trademark. In that case, Lee’s lawyers claimed Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of the writer’s long-time agent, Eugene Winick, had duped Lee into signing over the copyright on the book. The case was settled two months ago. The Carter in that firm is Tonya Carter, the lawyer most people in Monroeville seem to think has been given power of attorney by Harper Lee. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar 
 
 Legal papers submitted in the lawsuit filed against Lee's literary agent, in May, said that while the author's physical health had seriously deteriorated since a stroke in 2007, it had not affected her “mental capabilities”. “The thing about small towns like this: everybody will put a foot in if they think they can make a dollar,” a woman said. “I think it is bad that they’re acting like Harper Lee don’t exist.” 
 
 Additional reporting by Verna Gates in Monroeville
– Harper Lee is apparently as litigious as she is reclusive. The To Kill a Mockingbird author has, in the Guardian's words, "shocked" her hometown of Monroeville, Ala., by suing its local museum. The 87-year-old's accusation: that the nonprofit is making use of her fame without compensation. The trademark infringement lawsuit, filed Oct. 15, calls out the Monroe County Heritage Museum's website and gift shop sales of Mockingbird-branded goods. The museum says that shop rakes in a measly $28,000 annually, which funds a few "pitifully paid" employees, and that it has sold such goods for two decades, reports AL.com. But the suit accuses the museum of taking advantage of the book, and cites its web URL as example: tokillamockingbird.com. Just 30,000 visitors head to the museum annually, and it warns that the suit could prove its undoing. Making the story even more contentious: Locals aren't sure if Lee is actually the driver of the suit, and the museum suspects her "handlers" are taking advantage of her declining health. More confusing still, the suit suggests the museum is exploiting her health by committing bolder trademark violations, notes AL.com. Lee is deaf and nearly blind, and currently living in an assisted-living facility in Monroeville. The Guardian doesn't exactly make clear who is believed to be the driver, but floats one name: Tonya Carter, a lawyer married to Truman Capote's cousin (a longtime friend of Lee's). Many believe Lee handed Carter power of attorney, though the Guardian could find no paper trail proving that.