You know we live in interesting times when a kid, at 13 years old, can go on television and put on an idiotic showing and suddenly is a “celebrity”. This is exactly what happened to Danielle Bregoli who appeared on the Dr. Phil show which was filmed live in September of last year (2016). She is now suing no less than three gaming companies or infringement.
Bregoli is now 14 years old, and with her mother, owns a company named Dani B Holdings LLC which has filed a lawsuit against individuals and at least one gaming company (it gets more confusing so hold on).
The games in question are iOS games. One is called Cash Me Outside and the other is called How Bout Dat. These were published by Anonymous Games which apparently employed two people. These games were available on iTunes with How Bout Dat being voluntarily removed at some point after the February 17th publish date. Cash Me Outside was published on January 27th.
Okay, here is where it gets interesting. Dani B Holdings LLC did not apply for the copyright and trademark for the catch phrase, “Cash me ousside how bow dat” till May 3rd. At least two months or so after the second game was published.
Thursday, it was made clear that they were suing Anonymous Games. At some point the name of Catch Me Outside was change to Get Cash Outside. The game also has removed the Bregoli sound clip containing the popular catch phrase.
According to Palmbeachpost.com, Dani B Holdings LLC was in contact with the developers behind the game on two occasions prior to the lawsuit. The company claims in the suit that a verbal agreement was reached with Josiah Jenkins on February 6th (11 days before the second game was published on iTunes). Apparently, Jenkins stopped contact with Dani B Holdings LLC which prompted legal action.
Okay, another twist. Apparently, Jenkins no longer owns Anonymous Games. Instead, the new owner is Matthew Gruettner. That is not all, Dani B Holdings LLC is also suing two other game companies, Appnoxious LLC and Squad Social LLC which are also owned by Gruettner, but no word on their involvement with the games in question. I am not a lawyer so I am not sure if this is widespread practice to name all entities owned by an individual and the information available does not detail the actual involvement of these other two companies.
Dani B Holdings LLC claims that they had verbal agreements with both Jenkins and Gruettner at different times. Gruettner denies any deals were made though he did change the name of the original game when he learned a trademark was filed for by Dani B Holdings LLC.
This matter will apparently see court as no resolution has been made as of this writing.
This post received a 42% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @triverse! For more information, click here!
They'd better back off or she's going to cash them outside!
Law is on her side here. She said the catchphrase on television so she has hard proof that she is the originator of the phrase (unless someone can prove they said it sooner). Then Dani B Holdings LLC (apparently the mother started it unless minors can start companies in Florida) applied and was award the trademark and copyright for the phrase so, again the law is on her side here.
Whether someone likes her, that phrase, or how she became popular or not, it doesn't matter. Her family has taken the legal steps to control that phrase and retain the right to monetize it if they wish.
Yep! I agree! When you write a song, you're supposed to have a copyright the moment you write it. I can't see why the same thing wouldn't apply here. :)
Technically, yes, she already had a copyright/trademark on it when it was said. That is why I mentioned she has hard proof that she is the originator of the phrase.
I use the "poor man's copyright/trademark" of mailing myself hard copies of stuff I create. I don't open it though. I put the name of the item inside as the name on the return address portion so I know what it is. If I ever need to make good on it in court, opening it in court becomes the new guarantee that I am protected as the mailing date from the United States Postal Service is entered in court at time of opening of the envelope.
Same thing for her saying this on television. The only thing that could be a problem for them is that Dr. Phil's show try to claim a portion of the proceeds from the catchphrase since it debuted on his show. I am not sure how those talk shows are setup so that may be a mute point but one worth investigating.
I'd be curious if just due to the nature of her somewhat bizarre fame, these companies could mount a defense based on satire or parody.
When you click through to the source article you will see that Bruettner mentioned this is not over. I am guessing he will be going that route, if he is smart, because celebrities are all fair game for parodies and the like. Just look at the "fun" people had with Kesha or Madonna over the years (or any president in the last 30 years).
Who knew all you had to do to become a millionaire is be rude to people and be trashy.
Lol, you are apparently right.
The composition (writing/informativeness) of this post is great, but the content is completely mindnumbing.
For this reason, I'm refraining from upvoting. (Sorry)
No worries, I won't beg for the upvote because I completely understand your point of view. I do hope others are able to cast an upvote for the quality of the article, if not the subject matter.
I am watching to see if I have a future in news articles or not and adjust my writing based on response (upvotes, comments, resteems, etc) from my fellow Steemians.
I blame you for giving me the incentive to finally figure out what this meme was about and I feel dumber for it. Still following you though :) Someone has to troll the the heap of news to pick out the gems. Keep up the good work!
I try to stick to the more 'hard hitting' stuff but sometimes you get detoured. Lol Thanks for the follow, I appreciate it.
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