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.