Just Because The Person You're Suing Has Mastered A California Accent, It Doesn't Make California The Proper Jurisdiction

from the talk-about-a-longshot dept

Thu, Aug 25th 2011 3:00am — Mike Masnick

We had mentioned earlier this year how NBA player Chris Bosh had sued the producers of the reality TV show Basketball Wives for having an ex-girlfriend of his on the show. He claimed that it was a violation of his trademark, publicity rights and life rights. Oh yeah, he also complained that since the woman was never his "wife" there's a problem with the name of the show. Beyond just suing the producers of the show, he also sued the woman for appearing on the show, and she countersued him in part because she was soon kicked off the show. Either way Bosh and the producers settled, but the lawsuit against the woman continued... but has now been tossed over jurisdictional issues. You see, neither Bosh nor the woman, Allison Mathis, are in California, where the lawsuit was filed. Amazingly, Bosh tried (and failed) to get around this by saying that, well, she "has mastered a California accent." The court, pretty clearly, did not find that a compelling explanation for why the case belonged in California.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: basketball wives, chris bosh, jurisdiction, publicity rights

14 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

That Anonymous Coward (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 3:06am

Like fer sure yer honorness, I am tooootaly from California so this is the like awesomest place for me to like sue and stuff ya know?

Reality "Stars" aren't to bright.

Maybe John Waters had it right...

"If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't ____ 'em!" � John Waters

If you watch someone on TV and they are stupid, don't watch them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2011 @ 4:15am
  
  Re:
  Dude!!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2011 @ 4:49am
  
  Re:
  Dude!!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2011 @ 5:15am
    
    Re: Re:
    Dude, stop saying Dude! That's, like, totally, y'know, sensible. Now I'mma suing you for being stoopid!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Blatant Coward (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 3:46am

Would this mean to be a patent troll I'd have to learn to speak Texican?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
abc gum, 25 Aug 2011 @ 5:04am

life rights - "you need a celebrity's permission to portray them"

What about our laugh rights, we have the right to laugh at the expense of others.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lesath (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 7:15am

*in his best Keanu Reeves voice* whoah
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stuart, 25 Aug 2011 @ 7:49am

And this is why I hate basketball.

Of all the sports I know of basketball players are, as a group, the stupidest athletes out there.

Stupider even than those guy who do the backyard wrestling thing.

Basketball is a sport by thugs, for thugs.

Now football is starting to go that direction as well. (Real football. Not that round ball game the rest of the world plays.) :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Any Mouse (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 8:24am
  
  Re:
  Basketball was a sport created by a professor at the International YMCA Training School (that's Springfield College, these days) to keep people active during the winter. Yep. A sport 'by thugs,' for certain.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - PRMan, 25 Aug 2011 @ 11:28am
    
    Re: Re:
    He didn't say how it started, but this is what he believes that it has become. I don't watch it enough to have an opinion these days, but there are thugs/criminals in every sport.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The Groove Tiger (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 2:43pm
  
  Re:
  "Starting to go"? hahahaha...
  
  Oh, wait. You're serious. Let me laugh even harder. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Schmoo, 26 Aug 2011 @ 4:43am
  
  Re:
  "Real football. Not that round ball game the rest of the world plays."
  
  Remind me which appendage is used to play the "round ball game"? :)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Dude, 25 Aug 2011 @ 8:18am

Wait, what?
Why does he want to sue in California? Is there something special about that state?

Maybe this is a sign to California that they should look into their legal system.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Matt (profile), 25 Aug 2011 @ 11:49am
  
  Re: Wait, what?
  Publicity rights are well-litigated and statutory in California. Surprisingly to me, despite the fact that they must see hundreds every week, judges in California still get starstruck by celebrities, and give them great leeway in some matters. So a friendly forum with good law.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]