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- [00:00]
A
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y-N ads.com Today.
- [00:42]
B
The transition process involving Donald Trump has been quite humiliating and quite messy to say the least. And now Donald Trump has handed Our first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, a gift as she prepares to leave the White House. And that gift comes in the form of a potential $100 million lawsuit that she can choose to file against Donald Trump for violating her right to publicity. She now has a legal claim or a legal cause of action against Donald Trump that is quite valuable. It has a few year statute of limitations so she doesn't have to file it right away. She can decide that ultimately she doesn't want to file this civil lawsuit against Donald Trump. Donald Trump would not get any immunity at all for a type of civil lawsuit like this because it is before he takes office. Also, it's private in nature, so the Supreme Court's rulings would not apply to this. But here's what Donald Trump did that handed Dr. Jill Biden this $100 million lawsuit. In my opinion, he posts an endorsement, a fake endorsement of Dr. Jill Biden of his fragrance that he's selling. He's selling. Get Trump Fragrances.com he's come up with a scent called can you imagine us Anyway, Fight, Fight Fight is what the name of the scent is called. And he's selling cologne. And as part of his selling of the cologne, here's the advertisement that he made to try to monetize this cologne. Here are my new Trump perfumes and colognes. I call them Fight, Fight, Fight because they represent us winning great Christmas gifts for the family. Go to get Trump Fragrances.com Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And then it's a photo of himself next to Dr. Jill Biden and it says, a fragrance your enemies can't resist. Well, in addition to this being As I said, just humiliating for our nation that this is what Donald Trump is doing. Can you imagine, like, President Xi of China or Vladimir Putin or going more towards, like, our allies? Could you imagine, you know, the leader of the UK or Macron in France or whether it's in Canada or Mexico, whatever, selling fragrances? I mean, this guy is just a complete and utter snake oil salesman. But this type of fraudulent endorsement is called a violation of the right of publicity. And people have sued for violating their publicity rights before in situations very analogous to this one. And they've been awarded millions of dollars or in some cases in excess of $70 million for this type of behavior. This is what's called a tort. It's a civil wrong for which she can sue for monetary damages. This is not to be confused with what Donald Trump was doing the previous week, where Gibson Guitars sent Donald Trump a cease and desist letter. For Donald Trump ripping off their guitar design, that's a trademark violation for which they have to protect their intellectual property and their guitar designs. This is another cause of action. And Dr. Jill Biden, let me be clear, she's not sent Donald Trump a legal demand yet. She's not filed this lawsuit yet. But I want to explain what this lawsuit would look like and why I believe this could be $100 million lawsuit in the event she decides to file a case against Donald Trump. This is from the National Law Review, which is a very reputable legal periodical. And it talks about your identity is your asset, the value of protecting your nil rights. You ever hear that term nil name, image and likeness? Now, talk more about that in a bit. But most states have what's called a common law cause of action for people who violate your right to publicity. So in exact situations like this, where someone uses your image to sell their crap, they're not allowed to do that. They're not protected by the First Amendment because it's commercial, they're monetizing it. And the law, even if it's not codified in a statute, recognizes a right to sue on the basis of a publicity right violation. Now, the primary legal claim in such a lawsuit has four main elements. To win the right of publicity case, a plaintiff must generally show that the defendant in this case, Donald Trump won, use their name, image, or likeness, did so without consent, used it for commercial purposes, for example, advertising or product promotion. And finally, the fourth element caused the plaintiff harm or potential economic loss. Trump is selling these fragrances for millions of dollars, and he's using the name and image and likeness of Dr. Jill Biden to sell it. And here it talks about how celebrities, athletes and public figures, even ordinary people, can bring a right to public claim. Some states codify the right to publicity in a statute, but it doesn't have to be. For example, California Civil Code section 3344 provides that it is unlawful for the purpose of advertising or selling to knowingly use another's name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness without the person's prior consent. The statute also sets a term of 50 years for postmortem rights of publicity and additionally allows for the registration with the Secretary of State as successor and interest right. California Common Law Remember common law? I also talked about if there's not actual law on the books, most states still say that doesn't matter. You can still file lawsuits in that specific state. California common law protects against misappropriation of a person's name, likeness and identity as.
- [07:04]
C
Well so when we started the Midas Touch Network, an online store was the furthest thing from my mind. Now we're able to bring you the best price democracy merchandise and it's so easy. And it's all because I use Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to the did we just hit a million order stage? Shopify is there to help you grow the same way it helped us grow at the Midas Touch Network. Whether you're selling scented soap sounds good or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you.
- [07:40]
B
Sell everywhere from their all in one.
- [07:42]
C
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- [09:08]
B
Have a claim whether it was an California, whether she decides to sue in Delaware, whether she decides to sue in the District of Columbia. She has options where she can file this lawsuit. But let's talk about the value. Why I think that this could be a hundred million dollar lawsuit. Let's take a look at a case involving the rapper TI the Value of Ones this is from that National Law Review article. The value of one's name, image and like this has never been more significant than in today's advanced technological age. For those in the public eye, protecting these rights is essential to maintaining control over their personal brand and ensuring they receive fair compensation for their work and identity. A notable case that underscores the importance of name, image and likeness rights is the recent lawsuit involving the rapper T.I. harris and his wife, singer songwriter Tamika tiny Harris. On September 23, 2024, a California federal jury awarded the couple a staggering $71 million in their lawsuit against the toy company MGA Entertainment. The case centered around MGA's LOL Surprise OMG line of dolls. Ti and Tiny alleged that seven of the dolls in the line misappropriated the name and likeness of a teen pop group that Tiny helped create in 2009 called OMG Girls. The couple also brought a claim of trade dress infringement against MGA over the same doll line. At the height of their popularity, the OMG Girls were known for their unique fashion and colorful hairstyles. Three original members of the OMG Girls testified at trial that MGA's LOL Surprise Dolls copy the band members look from certain public events they attended. Attorneys for TI and Tiny also cited social media posts from France who assumed the dolls were inspired by the OMG Girls because they looked so similar. So here, when it comes to Donald Trump's use of Dr. Jill Biden's photo, it's much more clear now, isn't it? You literally see. You don't even have to get that testimony where you're digging through emails and text messages and you're calling people to say, is there a connection? No. Donald Trump did it for himself. He posted the image to advertise. The advertisement says that essentially that this is what your enemies will like. And it uses Dr. Jill Biden to sell the product. And it's a product that's going to get or going to make Donald Trump millions of dollars. And it tarnishes Dr. Jill Biden's brand by associating her now with the cologne and the perfumes, which would prevent her ability to access and sell things in the market, which is what she'll argue after she leaves and she becomes a private citizen. In other words, this malicious, willful and wanton act by Donald Trump is now tarnishing the Future ability of Dr. Jill Biden to monetize her own name, image and likeness by tarnishing it with the Trump brand. So I think that there's a possibility that you can ask for punitive damages somewhere in the range of 5 to 10 times the underlying damages. I think your underlying damages in a case like this would be somewhere between 10 to 20 million dollars based on the expectation of what Trump would make by selling these fragrances that's in line with what he makes by selling these products as part of his licensing deals. So if I were her and she came to me for a consultation and I decided, or she decided to sue, it's my opinion, again, just an opinion that she's got a legitimate call of action where she could credibly look the jury in the face and request about $100 million. Look, Trump is selling his perfume for anywhere from 99 to $199 each. And she has that claim. She has that right. You know, on the other hand, just, just so you can see, like Dr. Jill Biden's not asking that her name beyond these things, the same way that Melania Trump is, or in contrast to the way Melania Trump is asking that her name be put on things, right? Melania is selling $99.99 different, like ornaments she's selling. She's obviously, she's allowing her name, image and likeness to be used on Trump's social media platform to put her face on fake $500 first lady bills. Melania was on Fox hawking $90 USA star ornaments that she's posting there. One other thing to mention as well, just so you can, you know, you could see there's a post more. There's a right after somebody dies, after their death, a lot of states say you can still sue. And why I bring this up is when Donald Trump uses the endorsement of, of let's say Elvis. And again, it's possible Elvis is a state likes Donald Trump. I'm not sure, but I would believe that, like when Trump's been posting photos of himself next to Elvis lately. So my opinion is that Donald Trump potentially could, is potentially causing a cause of action, a violation of his right to publicity that the Elvis estate could potentially act on as well. There, there's lots of other cases in the law where name, image and likeness lawsuits have been filed. You see a lot of these cases, especially lately now that a lot of college athletes and high school athletes are entitled to monetize their brand. I teach this during my USC law class. I teach a class in the spring about nil and name, image and likeness. But again, I'm not saying here that Jill Biden has sued. I'm not saying she will sue. I'm saying that she can. And I think that it is a lucrative lawsuit. It's not protected by any immunities. The conduct predates Donald Trump going into office. He can claim any immunity. The conduct is him selling perfume. It's private. He wouldn't be able to assert immunity. So ultimately we'll see. But I wanted to break down what the legal claims are so you can learn about name, image and likeness law, misappropriation of name, image and likeness, how a claim like that would be asserted. And we'll see. But to me, she can sit back, do nothing, just wait a year or two and we'll go from there and then ultimately bring it if she wants to hit subscribe, let's get to 4 million subscribers and I hope you enjoy that analysis. Love this video. Make sure you stay up to date on the latest breaking news and all things Midas by signing up to the Midas Touch newsletter at Middle.
- [16:21]
A
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y-N-Ads.com today.