A registered trademark now sits at the center of a legal fight between Steven Crowder and three defendants: CNN, the digital media company Jubilee and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.
Crowder delivered the news Thursday from his own show. Announcing the suit, he told viewers, “Well, I guess we should officially announce that we’re suing.”
The legal action grows out of Wednesday’s town hall, an event CNN and Jubilee held featuring Talarico.
One portion of that event borrowed a format Crowder has used for years: Change My Mind. The video concept is a long-running part of his own work.
Talarico took part in that segment of the town hall. His objective was to sway undecided voters in the Senate race.
Crowder’s claim rests on trademark law. According to Louder with Crowder, Change My Mind is an active, registered trademark.
On air, Crowder floated two possible explanations for how the format ended up at the town hall. The first pointed at Jubilee.
“Maybe Jubilee has generated all of their profit off of a completely unoriginal idea, disguised it, and then the mask came off.”
He then shifted his focus to CNN and offered a second possibility.
“Or maybe CNN suggested, well, you know what? Change my mind has more brand familiarity because billions of people have seen the meme and the video,” Crowder said.
Between them, the two theories cover both companies named alongside Talarico. One addresses profit tied to an idea Crowder labeled unoriginal.
The other addresses the recognition the phrase carries because of the meme and the video.
Crowder also outlined what he wants the lawsuit to uncover.
“We need to find out who flagrantly disregarded the trademark, who flagrantly plagiarized, who profited off of it most, and for what degree of time.”
That statement lists four targets of inquiry: who disregarded the trademark, who plagiarized, who earned the most from the format and how long the conduct went on.
Crowder then described the circumstances under which he says he takes issue. “Once you rip it off, and you profit, and you use it for propaganda, I now have a problem,” Crowder said.
He closed that thought by questioning the other side.
“Why did you not do that before? All this time, you never came up with this idea because these people were incapable of doing it.”
Across his remarks, Crowder accused the defendants of three things: copying the format, profiting from it and using it for propaganda.
The timeline spans just two days. CNN and Jubilee held the town hall with Talarico on Wednesday, and Crowder announced his lawsuit on Thursday.
Talarico, a candidate in the Texas Senate race, is the third defendant. The undecided-voter segment he joined used the Change My Mind format that Crowder has used for years.
As of this report, CNN, Jubilee and Talarico have not been quoted responding to the announcement. The only account available comes from Crowder.
This is a breaking story, and details will be added as they become available.
