California Republication Party v. Asian American Small Business PAC - exhibits.pdf

EXHIBIT A To the Complaint of California Republican Party

Case 2:15-at-00306 Document 1-2 Filed 03/05/15 Page 1 of 10



EXHIBIT B To the Complaint of California Republican Party


Harmeet K. Dhillon [email protected]

177 POST STREET, SUITE 700 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108 | 415.433.1700 | 415.520.6593 (F)

February 24, 2015 VIA EMAIL AND FEDERAL EXPRESS Mr. Bill Wong Political Director Asian American Small Business PAC I.D. #1276929 [email protected] 916.708.2828 Northern Post Office Box 188858 Sacramento CA, 95818 Southern 3699 Wilshire Blvd., #1290 Los Angeles, CA 90012 CC: Executive Board James Santa Maria Lucy McCoy Jadine Nielsen

Re: Cease and Desist Concerning Unauthorized Use by the Asian American Small Business PAC of Insignia Owned By California Republican Party

Dear Mr. Wong:

This law firm represents the California Republican Party (“CRP”) regarding the illegal, fraudulent, misleading and unauthorized use of the Republican elephant insignia (“Elephant Insignia”) on a mailer recently published by the Asian American Small Business PAC (“you” or “your”) to recommend Michaela Hertle for the 7th State Senate District special election. Please direct all future communications concerning this matter to our attention. This is a serious matter requiring a prompt response in order to avoid a lawsuit.

As you are well aware, the mailer referenced above is intentionally misleading in that it appears to reflect an endorsement of Michaela Hertle by the CRP, which has not endorsed Ms. Hertle – in main part, because she is not running for the seat. Specifically, the mailer publishes a red and white elephant insignia with three white stars on the top


mailto:[email protected]

Mr. Bill Wong February 24, 2015 Page 2 of 3

DHILLON LAW GROUP INC. 177 POST STREET, SUITE 700 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108 | 415.433.1700 | 415.520.6593 (F)

half of the elephant. This elephant graphic is identical in shape, proportion, design and color to the well-known Elephant Insignia consistently used by the CRP, which is registered to the CRP pursuant to §21300 of the California Corporations Code. You did not seek or obtain a license or authorization for the use of the Elephant Insignia (or any derivatives thereof) prior to including that image in the mailer, nor do you currently have such license or authorization. Further, the mailer’s broader suggestion that Ms. Hertle is generally supported by Republican Party organizations is highly deceptive and misleading.

Please be advised that, as a result of your actions described above, you are liable

for violations of numerous federal and state laws, including, without limitation, various provisions of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §1125 et seq., California trademark common law, California Corporation Code §§ 21300 et seq., and California’s Unfair Business Practices Act, Corporations Code §17200 et seq. Your conduct has directly and proximately caused the CRP substantial harm, and subjects you to legal liability to the CRP for actual damages as well as statutory damages. Given the willfulness of your misconduct, the likelihood of confusion, actual confusion, and the threat of recurrence, damages are likely to include lost profits, disgorgement of your profits, treble damages, injunctive relief, and reasonable attorney’s fees as well as costs of legal action.

The CRP demands that you immediately cease and desist from further publication of any materials that make unauthorized use, in any manner whatsoever, of the Elephant Insignia, including but not limited to displaying that insignia on any slate mailers.

Litigation is likely to ensue concerning this matter. Under governing state and federal court rules, you are on notice to maintain hard copies of documents as well as all e-mail and other electronically stored information pertaining to the mailers in question, including all communications with other vendors, with the candidates listed on the mailers, with postal authorities, or with any other person. Electronic information includes e-mail, voicemail, word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, calendars, networks, computer systems (including legacy systems), servers, archives, backup and disaster recovery systems, tapes, disks, drives, cartridges, other storage media, laptops, internet records, web pages, personal computers, and other information storage devices. You are instructed to retain any copies you have on any storage medium, including sources of data such as portable hard drives, memory cards, “thumb drives,” blackberry, personal digital assistants, mobile telephones, iPods® and smartphones.

This list is not exhaustive; these potential locations of relevant data are included by way

of example only, and all documents relating in any way to the dispute discussed in this letter must be preserved. Your failure to comply with all statutory document and data preservation obligations that now exist may be severe, including monetary sanctions, terminating sanctions, or other sanctions.

Should you wish to discuss a voluntary resolution of this dispute, please contact us no later than noon on Friday, February 27, 2015. If we do not hear from you by that date with a substantive proposal to resolving the matter, we intend to proceed with filing the complaint that


Mr. Bill Wong February 24, 2015 Page 3 of 3

DHILLON LAW GROUP INC. 177 POST STREET, SUITE 700 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108 | 415.433.1700 | 415.520.6593 (F)

is already being drafted, and seek injunctive relief.

If you have any questions about the contents of this letter, please contact me or my colleague, Taylor Bloom.

Best regards,

Regards,

Harmeet K. Dhillon

CC: Executive Board James Santa Maria Lucy McCoy Jadine Nielsen

Taylor Bloom


EXHIBIT C To the Complaint of California Republican Party




Documents

California Republication Party v. Asian American Small Business PAC - exhibits.pdf