Netflix Defeats Spurious ‘Slumlord Millionaire’ Lawsuit
from the nah-dawg dept
The gears of justice turn slowly, but they do turn. Late last year we discussed a delightful gentleman named Roland Macher, who goes by “Spanky”, because of course he does. Spanky was a restaurant owner and real estate businessman who found himself in prison for over 2 years because paying your taxes is hard or annoying or something. Either way, he didn’t do it. In jail, he wrote a book about how others should do business and called it Slumlord Millionaire. Some time after that, Netflix released a series called Dirty Money, focusing on bad people doing bad business. One episode that centered on possible real life replicant Jared Kushner was also titled Slumlord Millionaire. And because of that, Spanky sued, representing himself.
Now, as we explained in the original post, this was never going to go anywhere. This lawsuit was always destined for the wastebin. The filing itself was rife with grammar issues to start with, but the merits of its claims that any of this is trademark or copyright infringement were laughable. Titles of works are not copyrightable elements and the content of the creative works were so completely different that no part of the copyright claim could have possibly have held up. As for trademark, here again the content is so different that the mere titling of an episode about completely different subject matter the same as the title of some book somewhere simply isn’t going to create any confusion in the public about source or origin, or the involvement of Spanky in a Netflix series.
And now we learn that the court has agreed, having dismissed the suit for being “deficient in many respects.”
“The episode has nothing to do with Macher or his book,” Judge Thomas T. Cullen said in his July 27 opinion in US District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
The judge noted that even under the “more lenient standard” of review afforded to a pro se plaintiff’s complaint, it “must still ‘allege facts sufficient to state all the elements of [the] claim.’”
Cullen said it has been “well-settled” that titles are not copyrightable, and the works’ differences mean there wouldn’t likely be confusion between the book and the show that would support a trademark claim.
And there you have it. Instead of filing spurious lawsuits he wrote himself and representing himself pro se, Spanky can now go back to… advising others on how to business, presumably without the whole, you know, going to prison thing.
Filed Under: copyright, roland macher, slumlord millionaire, thomas cullen, trademark
Companies: netflix
Comments on “Netflix Defeats Spurious ‘Slumlord Millionaire’ Lawsuit”
When your copyright claim is so fucked up even Richard Liebowitz wouldn’t take your case.
(I kid. If Liebowitz wasn’t so desperately trying to screw over Leonard French, he’d probably take up Spanky’s case in half a heartbeat.)
Re:
Not his own, though, since nosferatu lack that particular ability amongst others.
Quote link
Perhaps you should link to the article you’re quoting:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/netflix-wins-dismissal-of-slumlord-authors-infringement-suit
Re:
Indeed I should. Meant to and ommitted it by mistake, but fixing that now.
Don’t go to prison. Got it. Good advice.
Money grab fail
I bet he sold a book or two just because of that episode, so he likely benefitted at least a little bit from the ordeal. But the serious lack of intelligence about it probably kept him from realizing that.
Interesting information
I grew up in Roanoke, VA, where Spanky ran his restaurant enterprise. He owned up to 19 different restaurant’s in the central and western Virginia under the names Macado’s and Spanky’s. His brother Richard was a partner and they eventually split the business long before he went to prison. Lots and lots of stories about him in those parts, none of them very flattering but they make for interesting reading.
So… dipshit who thinks he has a great idea that will make him rich ends up in prison.
Dipshit then decides he should author a book about how to be a dipshit.
Dipshit then decides that his way to the good life is suing Netflix over a title.
Hes going back to prison soon I would imagine.