News & Media
Trademark counterfeiting and the new Las Vegas Raiders
Marc Randazza, the managing partner of Randazza Legal Group, comments on Trademark counterfeiting and the new Las Vegas Raiders. “[If] you sell merchandise with ‘Raiders’ on it, you better have the permission of the NFL,” Mr. Randazza told Las Vegas 13 Action News, “[j]ust because there may not yet be a Las Vegas Raiders, doesn’t mean that’s just open territory for someone to start using that to sell merchandise.” Read the rest of the story here: http://www.ktnv.com/sports/how-to-spot-counterfeit-raiders-merchandise-in-las-vegas
Las Vegas New Porn Frontier
Right now, Las Vegas looks like the new frontier for porn. Marc Randazza, an entertainment lawyer who has studied the porn industry’s migration to Nevada, sees Kink.com’s move “in the larger context of adult entertainment companies looking just a few hours east, seeing much lower costs to doing business, and a much more business friendly environment, and more social tolerance than in California. They realize that it is a no brainer to tell California to go fuck itself.” https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kinkcom-is-shuttering-its-san-francisco-sex-dungeon?utm_source=huffpostUS
SPRING VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!
Randazza Legal Group is proud to sponsor Spring Valley High School Football. When they approached us to sponsor them, of course we said “yes.” When they told us that we got to put whatever we wanted on the back of the shirt, we saw it as a great opportunity to try and spread the gospel of the First Amendment. Of course, we wanted some quote that might inspire a young future First Amendment lawyer, but, we didn’t want it to be too legalistic. Normally, this kind of sponsorship benefits personal injury firms and other firms that do consumer-level law. “We
Randazza Resoundingly Wins First Amendment Case
In Marc Randazza’s latest First Amendment victory, he once again fended off censorship in favor of wide open debate. In this appellate victory, the 11th Circuit Court of appeals upheld an earlier anti-SLAPP win, and a lower court decision that held that a plaintiff could not use a bogus “false advertising” claim in order to stifle free speech. This case centers around a dispute between two doctors, Dr. Steven Novella and Dr. Edward Tobinick. Marc Randazza represented Novella, a Professor of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine and the editor of Science Based Medicine, a website that promotes scientific debate
Randazza: Support Trump’s Pledge to Let Churches Engage in Politics
By Marc Randazza President Trump promised to get rid of a law that restricts churches from engaging in political speech. Trump said he would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment. That law is believed to say that if a church endorses or campaigns for political candidates, it loses its tax exempt status. The result has been a wave of shock. Why, I can’t explain, since it was one of his campaign promises. There seems to be a perception that the Johnson Amendment only applies to religious organizations. Trump’s words themselves seem to contribute to this misinformation. “I will get rid of
Randazza: Melania’s Defamation Case (Half) Dismissed
By Marc Randazza Melania Trump’s defamation case against the Daily Mail was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. (source) It does, however, continue against a Maryland based blogger. The Maryland court decided that the Daily Mail, a UK-based publication, had insufficient connections to Maryland to permit a lawsuit against it there. Therefore, there was a lack of personal jurisdiction. Personal jurisdiction is often the opening skirmish in a defamation claim. Plaintiffs like to bring claims either in libel-friendly jurisdictions, or at least in jurisdictions close to home. In the United States, plaintiffs try to avoid states with Anti-SLAPP laws, for
Randazza: Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Statute Survives Constitutional Challenge
By Marc Randazza Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP law has survived a constitutional challenge to its validity in Shapiro v. Welt. Nevada’s original anti-SLAPP statute, Nev. Rev. Stat. 41.637 et seq., adopted in 1993. Its protections were limited to speech “in furtherance of the right to petition,” and thus it did not provide adequate protections to free speech rights in Nevada (and by extension, beyond, See Adelson v. Harris, 774 F.3d 803 (2014)). With the signing of Senate Bill 286 into law on June 3, 2013, that changed. It now protects “the right to free speech in direct connection with an issue of
Randazza: Can Trump Break the Back of Sanctuary Cities?
I attended a protest in Miami on Friday. The crowd was upset that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered Miami authorities to cooperate with the federal government and the INS and comply with federal immigration detention policies. Prior to this, Miami was deemed to be a “sanctuary city” – or a city where the local authorities refused to comply with federal immigration law. It got some thinking, how does this all work? Can Trump command cities to enforce immigration law, if they don’t want to? Can he just withhold federal funds to coerce them? The federal government has limited powers. Where
Randazza: What Shall We Do With the Dago?
There are good and bad immigrants. Appleton Morgan explained this in Popular Science (vol 38). Morgan concluded that some immigrants just do not belong in America, no matter how hard we try and make them fit. These immigrants are prone to violence. They do not share our culture. They do not share our language. They are looking for a handout. They just can’t learn our values. The title of his article? “What Shall We Do with the Dago?” “Dago” is mental shorthand for an ugly caricature of the Italian immigrant. That swarthy laborer, chattering in a strange tongue, with strange
Randazza: Maybe the Press Should Listen to Steve Bannon
It is no secret that the Trump administration has a tense relationship with the institutional media. Conservatives have long felt that the media is biased against their point of view, and with the exception of Fox News, who could really argue with them? The “objective” media, to the extent it ever existed, is an endangered species. And this election cycle, for the first time, that media bias didn’t really matter. In this election, the media was almost in lock-step in both its desire to defeat Trump, and in its complete confidence that it would succeed. Up until this election, if
Randazza: Legalize Child Porn?
We should be worried about the Adverse Secondary Effects of making child porn illegal. A few days ago, I brought you this post about a cop who got busted for filming the perfectly legal (in Texas) act of having sex with a dog. In it, I hinted that he also got tapped for possession of child porn, and that this was a rant for another day. Welcome to that rant. Unsheathe your rage. I am going to make the case for legalization of child pornography – or at least to argue against long-standing beliefs about why possession of it should
Randazza: Screw your dog, just don’t film it!
Texas puts the “best” in bestiality! A cop got arrested for fucking a dog. Hilarity ensues. (source) And, who could sympathize with this cop? He was fucking a dog, after all. Well, that’s the thing about seeing someone prosecuted — you shouldn’t think about whether you sympathize with them. You shouldn’t think about “what happens if I want to fuck a dog?” You should think about what’s really going on, and how it could affect you, even if you could never get a chubbie for a pug, no matter how slutty it is. In Texas, believe it or not, it
Randazza: Donald Trump’s Golden Opportunity
Donald Trump infamously said he was going to “open up the libel laws.” First Amendment loving people pushed back — even a lot of Trump supporters, or at least people who are not suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. See, e.g., Is the First Amendment Safe from Donald Trump? We don’t need to make it easier for public figures to sue the media. New York Times v. Sullivan and its progeny have given us a wide open and robust marketplace of ideas, which has withstood the test of time. That case affirmed our “profound national commitment to the principle that debate
Protect yourself in Brazil
Although you might not think often about protecting your trademark rights in Brazil, you need to – even if you don’t yet have a single Brazilian customer. Scammers are constantly looking for ways to profit off of the work of others. Anyone with a computer and a little bit of know-how can start skimming your customers. Even worse, with just a little effort, they can dive in and steal an entire international market from you. Pinterest learned this the hard way. It neglected getting its trademark registered in the UK, so some enterprising company filed for it instead. In the
Randazza: We can never be too safe! (Update – Passenger banned for life)
We can never be too safe from awful speech. You know, speech with which we disagree. That kind. This douchebag got on a flight and went on a 45 second triumphant rant about Trump. “We got some Hillary bitches on here,” the man yelled. “Come on, baby. Trump!” He then kept yelling, telling everyone that Trump is “president of every one of y’all” and if they don’t like it, “too bad.” The video is here. Clearly the most dramatic reaction on the plane was an eye roll. One woman sarcastically said “we can’t hear you.” Later, a flight attendant took
Randazza: Castro Dead – Good Time to Talk About “Fake News”
“Journalists” are writing about “fake news” as if “bullshit” was something new. If you don’t know the name “Herbert Matthews,” but you think you know anything about Fidel Castro, you don’t know shit. Matthews was the master of journalistic fiction, and he and the New York Times are why you even know Castro’s name. Matthews covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia for the New York Times. He didn’t even try and hide his bias in favor of the Italian Fascists. He wrote, “[i]f you start from the premise that a lot of rascals are having a fight, it is not
Randazza: Castro is Dead. So What?
So Castro is finally dead. Some are dancing on his grave. Some are mourning him. As usual, I agree with nobody. Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban dictator who preceded him was arguably worse. Knowing that matters. Batista jailed and tortured his political opponents and was as brutal a dictator as Castro ever could have imagined. He plundered the Cuban economy for personal gain like any other petty little despot. After Castro overthrew him, his family lived a life of luxury on everything they stole. In fact, his family is still a prominent fixture in Florida politics. Batista was awful and anyone
Randazza: Gracias por estar aquí
Lets start with what this is not. I am neither predicting doom from a Trump presidency, nor am I telling you that you have nothing to worry about. That isn’t the point. The point is not the relative merits of what happened on November 8. The point is that if you want to fix it, whatever it is, you can. I don’t have a brilliant grand plan. But I have a little idea. Say “thank you.” Say “thank you” to the people who might be feeling marginalized. Say thank you to Muslims you know. Say thank you to any immigrants
Randazza: Delray Beach Passes Really Stupid Tattoo Studio Ordinance
The City of Delray Beach, Florida decided that it didn’t like “that kind of thing.” So, they took a page out of the moral-crusader textbook — formerly only used to ban adult bookstores and strip clubs — and informed tattoo artists that they are just not welcome in their Quiet Little Beach Community. Ordinance No. 33-16 places a number of unconstitutional limits on these businesses. WHEREAS, there is NOTHING TO SEE HERE The first sign that an ordinance is unconstitutional? When its City Attorney thinks it is so constitutionally suspect that they feel the need to pack its introduction with