Lingerie Fighting Championships receives cease & desist from Dana White’s Power Slap over new Power Spank Parody
Lingerie Fighting Championships Responds to Power Slap Cease & Desist Letter, Vows to Defend Power Spank as Protected Parody
LFC-owned Power Spank, the parody that opens every U.S. LFC event, is protected by the First Amendment, and the company will defend that right all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
LAS VEGAS, NV – Lingerie Fighting Championships, Inc. (“LFC” or the “Company” OTCID:BOTY) today announced that it has been served with a cease and desist letter from counsel for Schiaffo LLC d/b/a Power Slap. Power Slap is the slap-fighting league founded by UFC’s Dana White. The letter objects to LFC’s Power Spank feature and demands that LFC stop using the name.
Power Spank is owned by Lingerie Fighting Championships, Inc. It is an original LFC property and a deliberate, obvious parody of Power Slap. It now opens each LFC event in the United States.
LFC’s position is that Power Spank is a clear parody, and parody is protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Parody works by evoking its target so that audiences recognize the joke, and no reasonable viewer would believe Power Spank is made, sponsored, or endorsed by Power Slap. LFC’s own announcement presented Power Spank as a playful, tongue-in-cheek response to Power Slap, and the cease & desist letter’s own quotations show that framing.
“Power Spank is LFC’s creation, and it is a parody. Satire and parody have a long, protected place in American expression, and that applies to combat sports entertainment as much as anything else,” said Shaun Donnelly, CEO of Lingerie Fighting Championships. “We respect Power Slap and its founders, but we will not be bullied into abandoning protected speech. We will defend our right, and the right of every American, to free speech, and if that takes us to the Supreme Court, we are prepared to go.”
According to promotion officials, LFC has no plans to change its programming. Power Spank will continue to open LFC events in the U.S. while the Company evaluates its options with legal counsel.
